Tribune de Geneve. Dual nationals implicated in terrorist activities or who leave to fight in the name of jihad, should be stripped of their Swiss nationality. The Swiss National Council voted in favour of a UDC (SVP) parliamentary initiative of this nature by 102 votes against 85 on Monday. The initiative’s text, put forward previously by […]
Amazing footage of high altitude Swiss lake in summer and winter
The video below by Achim Meylan shows shows the incredible beauty of Lac de Joux from the air in summer. Lac de Joux is situated in the canton of Vaud at just above 1,000 metres in the Jura mountain range in Switzerland. Because of the lake’s altitude and microclimate, in winter it is transformed into […]
Swiss national bank’s foreign currency holdings reach all-time high
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank’s holdings of foreign currency soared to an all-time high in November, a month that the franc depreciated roughly 4 percent against the dollar. The reserves, on which economists keep a close watch for clues to the central bank’s interventions, rose to 562.7 billion francs ($563 […]
Geneva’s giant broken chair gets a new foot
As part of the commemoration of world disability day Geneva’s giant broken chair found itself with a giant foot. The foot appeared on Monday last week. The chair, which has three good legs and one which appears to have been blown off in an explosion, symbolises opposition to land mines. The 12 metre high chair was […]
Salt’s Swedish CEO quits
The Vaud-based company announced today that Johan Andsjö has decided to leave Salt as CEO with immediate effect. The Swedish Engineer turned CEO describes himself as someone who starts things up, shuts things down and turns things around. In his profile on Salt’s website he offers a thought: It’s easy to make simple things complicated. […]
Is there life beyond earth? Geneva’s natural history museum offers clues and tours in English.
Could other life exist in the universe? Switzerland’s largest natural history museum currently houses an exhibition on exoplanets looking at this question. Spread over 1,000 m2 on four floors, it is the largest exhibition of its kind. The museum also offers guided tours in English at 15:30 on Sunday 6 and 20 December 2015 and […]
SMI underperforms after Draghi disappoints
4 December 2015 – Weekly Swiss and global market roundup. Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The SMI underperformed the MSCI World this week along with other European markets after a cut in the European Central Bank’s deposit rate and the magnitude of the extension of its quantitative-easing plan announced on Thursday afternoon disappointed investors. While […]
Geneva’s heavy 2016 tax burden
Every year the Swiss federal department of finance calculates the percentage of the tax base each canton will collect in tax in the coming year. Calculations for 2016 put Geneva in the lead with a tax burden of 34.2%, well above the Swiss average of 25.5%. The canton of Schwyz has the lowest percentage of 10.5%, sitting […]
Whizz through Lausanne at street level
Lausanne-based visual artist Sylvain Botter created this fast-paced two minute time lapsed montage of Lausanne in Switzerland. If you don’t know the city this video gives a great feel for what it’s like by taking you down into the city and through the streets. Buckle up. It’s fast. For more stories like this on Switzerland follow […]
ECB QE boost has opposite effect
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The European Central Bank unveiled a range of measures to tackle too-low inflation, from a cut in the floor for interest rates to an expansion of its bond-buying program by at least 360 billion euros ($390 billion). The Frankfurt-based ECB will extend quantitative easing by six months until at […]
