Switzerland’s federal surplus even larger than expected

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In October 2018, government number crunchers revised Switzerland’s federal forecast budget surplus up from CHF 0.3 billion to CHF 2.5 billion.

Today, Bern announced that provisional calculations for 2018 now show a surplus of CHF 2.9 billion, CHF 0.4 billion more than last year’s revised figure. The increase was driven by strict spending discipline and higher than expected receipts, according to the press release.

In 2017, Switzerland managed a surplus of CHF 2.8 billion.

At the end of 2017, total public debt¹ in Switzerland’s was 29.5% of GDP or CHF 23,257 per inhabitant. Applying last year’s surplus of CHF 2.9 billion to Switzerland’s CHF 197 billion debt mountain would only reduce it by 1.5% or CHF 341 per person. Excluding interest payments, another 68 years of the same surplus would generate enough to pay back all of Switzerland’s public debt.

More on this:
Government press release (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
¹Total combined public debt across all levels of government including federal, cantonal and municipal at the end of 2017.