Speaking to Tribune de Genève, Serge Dal Busco, Geneva’s minister of finance, voiced his concerns about last Sunday’s rejection of Switzerland’s planned company tax reform. At the same time he remains optimistic about the chances of a new federal corporate tax reform project. His biggest concern is that Bern might backtrack on its promise to […]
Swiss unemployment rises. French-speaking cantons worst affected.
Le Matin. The unemployment rate across Switzerland climbed by 0.2% to 3.7% in January, and regional differences were clear. Across French and Italian-speaking cantons the rate averaged 5%, while across the German-speaking cantons it was 3.1%. The unemployment rate climbed across Switzerland’s French-speaking cantons with Neuchâtel remaining the worst affected. There the rate climbed 0.3% to […]
Swiss might drop daylight savings
20 Minutes. Switzerland could drop daylight savings. Currently, Switzerland’s Federal Council sees no reason to abandon it, however if Switzerland’s neighbours did it would follow, mainly for economic reasons said the Federal council. National councilor Yvette Estermann (UDC/SVP), who is fiercely opposed to daylight saving, took the opportunity to point out the negative health consequences […]
Swiss fact: 96% of Swiss workers earn more than 3,000 francs a month
A report published by the Swiss Federal Office of statistics, shows that only 4.3% of full-time1 workers earn CHF 3,000 or less per month2. The monthly figure is net of social security deductions, but includes one twelfth of the 13th bonus month typically paid in Switzerland. CHF 3,000 per month is CHF 36,000 a year, […]
Swiss fact: work days lost to strikes in Switzerland a ninth of surrounding nations
Across the ten years to 2008, Switzerland lost an average of 3 working days per 1,000 workers to strikes a year. This compares to 32 days in Austria, 33 days in France, and 55 days in Italy. Germany was close behind Switzerland with 4 days. The combined average over this period for these four neighbouring […]
Squeezed and angry: how to fix the middle class crisis – a look at Switzerland
One of the topics at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos is: Squeezed and angry: how to fix the middle class crisis. As a precursor, the WEF published the 135 page Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017, which ranks Switzerland 3rd behind Norway and Luxembourg on inclusion, out of a group of 30 advanced economies. In […]
Swiss franc less overvalued according to latest Big Mac index
On 12 January 2017, the Economist came out with its latest Big Mac index. Also known as the burger benchmark, the index compares the price of a Big Mac around the world. This catchy, if highly incomplete means of comparing the relative purchasing power of different currencies, uses the United States and the US$ as its […]
2016 saw fewer passengers on Switzerland’s highest railway
The train, which takes sightseers to the Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Alpes, carried 916,500 passengers in 2016, significantly fewer than the year before. In 2015, a record 1,007,000 made the journey. Despite the decline, 2016 was still the second best performance recorded. And, at the price of CHF 218.80 for a first class round trip, brought in […]
SMI set to end 2016 in negative territory
30 December 2016 – Swiss and global market roundup. Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. In the last week of the year, the Swiss Market Index deepened its loss for the year as banks continued lower on low trading volumes. The SMI is set to end 2016 with an annual loss of 6.8% as banking and […]
Miners, including Swiss-based Glencore, unearth a profit bonanza with rally set to last into 2017
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Miners had been digging in one of Australia’s oldest collieries for almost a century until operations wound down a year ago, the victim of plunging global commodity prices. Now owner Glencore Plc is resuming output at the Queensland site, the latest sign of a profit bonanza bringing the world’s […]
