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From Friday 30 April 2021, old Swiss bank notes will no longer be legal tender. This means they can no longer be used as a valid means of payment. © Jean-michel Feinen | Dreamstime.comThe notes affected are old 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 1,000 Swiss franc notes. From 30 April 2021, the only places that will accept these notes are Swiss Rail and Swiss Post, who will accept them until 30 October 2021. After 30 October 2021, the only places that will accept these notes are the cash desks...

Recently published statistics show that 36% of homes are owned by those who live in them, a rate that falls to 12% in municipalities with more than 100,000 residents. Lausanne © Ocskay Mark | Dreamstime.comSwiss municipalities with the highest rates of home ownership (37%) have between 10,000 and 15,000 residents, a rate exceeding the smallest municipalities of less than 10,000 residents (31%). At a cantonal level, the cantons with the lowest rates of home ownership were Geneva...

In 2020, total reserves held by Swiss health insurance companies reached CHF 11.3 billion, a level equivalent to 203% of the minimum required, according to RTS. © Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.comExcess reserves jumped recently after the government cut the minimum reserve level by one third, part of a move designed to encourage health insurers to align premiums more closely with costs. The government wants to reduce the chance of insurance companies dipping into reserves to support the...

On 14 April 2021, Switzerland’s federal government announced it had spent CHF 14.2 billion more that it had collected in revenue in 2020. © Marekusz | Dreamstime.comThe loss represents the federal government’s consolidated excess expenditure for the year and is linked to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the statement. An additional CHF 16.8 billion was spent as a result of the pandemic. Consolidated accounts include the results of companies linked to the...

Around three years ago, the Swiss canton of Jura introduced a minimum wage of CHF 20 an hour (US$ 21.65). Now there is political pressure relook at the move, according to RTS. © Kasto80 | Dreamstime.comA group of cantonal parliamentarians from the PDC (CVP) is pushing for a review of the situation in response to pressure from some young people. The group says that the CHF 20 floor on hourly wages is having a negative effect on the employment prospects of some job seekers, particularly...

At the beginning of the pandemic there were calls to avoid using cash for sanitary reasons. Contactless electronic payment was the recommended method of transacting. © Maksym Kapliuk | Dreamstime.comLast spring cash withdrawals from cash machines sank by 50% in Switzerland, according to the SIX Group. Across the whole of 2020, cash withdrawals from Swiss cash machines was down 23% and contactless payments were up, according to Le Temps. However, despite rising cashless payments and...

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Switzerland has economically navigated the Covid-19 pandemic well so far. © Marekusz | Dreamstime.comIn 2020, the Swiss economy shrank by 2.9%, far less than many other advanced European economies. France (-8.2%), Germany (-4.9%), Italy (-8.9%) and the UK (-9.9%) all performed far worse. According to the IMF, the impact of the pandemic in Switzerland was cushioned by solid public and household finances, competitive export industries,...

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Swiss economy. GDP fell by 2.9% compared to 2019. However, despite the fall in economic output the number of bankruptcies fell by 6.7% compared to 2019. © Deaconsdocs | Dreamstime.comIn addition to a fall in the number of bankruptcies, the sum lost from closed bankruptcies fell 27%, after adjusting for the CHF 6.5 billion lost from the collapse of the Erb empire, Switzerland’s second largest bankruptcy after Swissair. Rolf Erb, the last CEO of the...

During 2020, average annual inflation was –0.7%, according to Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Since the beginning of 2021 it has begun to rise. © Vlad Ispas | Dreamstime.comIn January 2021 inflation was 0.1%. In February it rose to 0.2% and it March it was 0.3%. Since the end of 2020, Swiss prices have risen by nearly 0.6% (0.56%). If the current inflation rate were to continue until the end of the year annual inflation in Switzerland would hit 2.25%. The sharpest...

Statistics from Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office show a dramatic fall in the number of crimes during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. © Releon8211 | Dreamstime.comAcross all of 2020, 421,678 crimes were recorded, 2.4% fewer than the year before. Drug crimes (-9%), immigration crimes (-12%) and burglaries (-10%) were all down. At the same time violent crimes rose 3%, in particular serious acts of violence (+9%), which were driven up by suicide attempts (+22%), rape (+5%)...