On 28 June 2023, Switzerland’s Federal Council approved a budget for 2024 with a deficit of CHF 6.7 billion. Switzerland’s constitution includes a section designed to constrain spending to prevent the government from living beyond its means. The debt brake, as it is known, allows a limited degree of annual overspending that is expected to […]
Swiss electricity prices to rise further in 2024
This week, VSE, an electricity association, said pricey electricity markets will likely lead to even higher Swiss electricity prices in 2024. Prices rose on average by 27% (+6 cents/kWh) in Switzerland in 2023. In 2024 VSE expects them to rise by a further 12% (+3 cents/kWh). This would bring the average price to almost 30 […]
Switzerland’s enormous Covid cost revealed
On 21 June 2023, the government published figures on the direct health costs of the Covid pandemic. During 2020, 2021 and 2022, the federal government spent CHF 4.9 billion, the cantons up to CHF 2.9 billion and health insurers as much as CHF 1.4 billion. The CHF 9.2 billion total comes out at more than […]
Swiss municipalities with most private swimming pools
This week RTS published a map showing which Swiss municipalities have the highest numbers of private swimming pools. Swimming pool champions are clustered mainly in Italian- and French-speaking Switzerland. Three of the top ten municipalities are in Ticino, five in Geneva and two in Vaud. Only the commune of Binningen in Basel Landschaft in German-speaking […]
Swiss central bank puts interest rate up this week
In November 2019 before the pandemic hit Switzerland, Thomas Jordan, the head of Switzerland’s central bank was warning that the bank might need to take interest rates below the unusually low -0.75% rate that prevailed at the time. Since then the rate has risen by 2.5% after a 0.25 percentage point rise announced on 22 […]
Swiss building costs continue sharp rise
Between October 2020 and April 2023, Swiss building construction costs rose by 13.9%. On an annualised basis the cost of building has been rising at a rate of 4.3% over this period, a rate higher than general inflation – the consumer price index rose 2.6% over the year to the end of April 2023. Building […]
Latest inflation forecast points to Swiss rate rise
The latest Swiss inflation forecast published this week by SECO points to a further rise in interest rates later this month. Although the expert group on business cycles continues to expect significantly below-average growth for the Swiss economy, with a rate of 1.1% in 2023, followed by 1.5% in 2024, its forecast inflation of 2.3% […]
Swiss government moves closer to abolishing fake taxable rents
Every year, home owners in Switzerland who live in their properties must add an imputed rent to their taxable income, adding to their tax bill. The system was introduced in the 1940s to fund government shortfalls during the war. A number of politicians and members of the public have tried for roughly two decades to […]
Practically no gender pay inequality, shows Swiss study
A study done by the University of St. Gallen on behalf of the Swiss Employers’ Association published this week found there was practically no pay inequality between men and women in Switzerland, reported RTS. The study looked at analysis done on 461 companies in Switzerland using a federal government framework. According to the results 99.3% […]
Geneva to vote on turbo taxing the wealthy
Switzerland is one a few countries that taxes wealth, a tax borne by a relatively small percentage of the population, due partly to thresholds and allowances. On 18 June 2023, citizens in the canton of Geneva will vote on whether to boost the rate of wealth tax applied to assets above CHF 3 million over […]
