Tag Archives: 2) Swiss and European Macro

We do not like Purchasing Power or Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) as measurement for currencies. For us, the trade balance decides if a currency is overvalued. Only the trade balance can express productivity gains, while the REER assumes constant productivity in comparison to trade partners. Who has read Michael Pettis, knows that a rising trade surplus may also be caused by a higher savings rate while the trade partners decided to spend more. This is partially...

Turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 5.4% in nominal terms in November 2021 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover rose by 1.4% compared with the previous month. These are provisional findings from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Real turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 5.8% in November 2021 compared with the previous year. Real growth takes inflation...

14.12.2021 – The Producer and Import Price Index rose in November 2021 by 0.5% compared with the previous month, reaching 105.2 points (December 2020 = 100). In particular, petroleum products as well as petroleum and natural gas saw higher prices. Compared with November 2020, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products rose by 5.8%. These are the results from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). In particular, higher prices for non-ferrous...

02.12.2021 – Turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 0.6% in nominal terms in October 2021 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover rose by 0.5% compared with the previous month. These are provisional findings from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Real turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 1.2% in October 2021 compared with the previous year. Real growth takes...

25.11.2021 – Switzerland’s settlement and urban areas have expanded by a further 181 km2 in the last ten years, which is twice the area of Lake Zurich. Compared with previous decades, however, settlement growth has slowed down slightly. Forests have also expanded, but only in the mountains. Like settlements, they have grown primarily at the expense of agricultural area. In the high mountain regions, glaciers have continued to shrink unabatedly. These are the latest...

23.11.2021 – In 2019, the average household disposable income in Switzerland was CHF 6609 per month. A large part of this amount was used for the consumption of goods and services, namely CHF 4985. Households spent 31.0% of their budget on compulsory expenditure such as taxes, social expenditure and health insurance premiums, averaging CHF 2973. These are some of the findings from the Household Budget Survey 2019, carried out by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO)....

We do not like Purchasing Power or Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) as measurement for currencies. For us, the trade balance decides if a currency is overvalued. Only the trade balance can express productivity gains, while the REER assumes constant productivity in comparison to trade partners. Who has read Michael Pettis, knows that a rising trade surplus may also be caused by a higher savings rate while the trade partners decided to spend more. This is partially...

. US prices continue to rise, with the US consumer price index (CPI) for October coming in at its highest in three decades. President Biden made a boldly worded response as inflation becomes a growing focus among politicians with their eyes fixed on next year’s midterm elections. Oil prices fell on investors’ expectations that the US could free up strategic reserves to combat energy inflation. At the same time, bond yields rose on the back of the CPI release, but the...

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, academic Baccalaureate holders were much faster to transition to a higher education institution in 2020. This led to a record number of new students in the universities and institutes of technology. Transitions after a federal vocational or specialised Baccalaureate saw hardly any change. In vocational education and training (VET), the coronavirus crisis has only had a slight impact to date. These are findings from two new publications...

15.11.2021 – In 2020, 10 945 sentences and measures were executed in Switzerland (2019: 13 810). More than two thirds (67%) were for imprisonment in a penal institution. Community service accounted for less than a third (30%) of executions of sentences while electronic monitoring made up 3%. 86% concerned males and 42% Swiss citizens. The average population in penal institutions decreased by 6%. Data come from the Federal Statistical Office’s (FSO) execution of...