Tag Archives: 3.) Swiss Info

Fears over coronavirus could boost online shopping this year. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Swiss shoppers spent more than CHF10 billion ($11 billion) online last year, an increase of 8.4% from 2018, according to a study of retail habits. Electronics and fashion goods dominated orders. Food accounted for just 2.8% of the total goods consumed (up from 1.8% in 2018), but the report’s authors expect orders to increase this year with people reluctant to go to supermarkets...

Some reports claim that planes have been flying without passengers in order to maintain landing slots. (Keystone / Laurent Gillieron) With passenger numbers down due to Covid-19, some airlines want authorities to loosen rules maintain that airport landing slots are lost unless fully used. “Use it or lose it”: regulations state that when an airline is allocated a landing slot, it must use it at least 80% of the time planned, or else risk being stripped of it the...

A pedestrian walks along an empty street in Haro, northern Spain, on March 9, 2020 (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved) Swiss pharma giant Roche said on Tuesday it would send all of its 1,200 Spanish employees home starting from Wednesday to work remotely amid the coronavirus outbreak. “The company will maintain its normal activity and will guarantee, as until now, the supply of medicines to hospitals,” Roche said in a statement. The company...

Waiting for departure in Olten, northwestern Switzerland. (© Keystone / Peter Klaunzer) The number of people taking trains in Switzerland has fallen since the outbreak of the coronavirus, resulting in a huge financial hit, Swiss Federal Railways reported on Tuesday. The number of passengers across Switzerland has fallen by 10-20%, while the number of people travelling to Italy has dropped by 90% and those going to France has fallen by 60% compared to before the virus...

Fewer tourists than usual on the Kappellbrücke, Lucerne. (Keystone / Alexandra Wey) The Swiss hotel industry could lose out on up to half a billion francs in 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19, the boss of the country’s tourism body has said. Martin Nydegger of Switzerland Tourism said on Monday that he expects the virus to account for some 2.1 million fewer overnight stays in Swiss hotels this year compared with 2019, amounting to financial losses of CHF532 million...

“Work sets you free”: The entrance to the Auschwitz extermination camp. After the Second World War many Nazis took refuge in Latin America. (Keystone / Frank Leonhardt) A list of 12,000 Nazis who are said to have lived in Argentina from the 1930s onwards has been found in Buenos Aires. Many of the Nazi sympathisers reportedly paid money into one or more accounts at Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, which later became Credit Suisse. “We believe it is very probable that...

Data published this week showed China’s factory activity contracted at its sharpest pace on record in February (Keystone / Xu Changliang) China’s sharp contraction in economic activity over the past month due to the coronavirus epidemic is sending shockwaves across the globe. Switzerland is one of the top ten countries exposed to Chinese supply disruptions, a United Nations report reveals. Over the past month China, which has a central role in global supply chains,...

Red Bull buys about 25% of the sugar produced in Switzerland, resulting in reported savings for the company of up to CHF10 million (© Keystone / Christian Beutler) The makers of sweet products benefit from the federal subsidies paid to sugar beet farmers in Switzerland. The price of sugar in Switzerland has been on the decline for years. As a result, 400 farmers have quit producing it in recent years. Sugar beet producers receive annual subsidies amounting to CHF36...

The price watchdog wants to see a 2% reduction in ticket prices once track fees for rail companies drop starting next year. (© Keystone / Walter Bieri) With track fees for rail companies set to drop, savings should be passed on to customers, Stefan Meierhans told the weekly NZZ am Sonntag. The call comes on the heels of revelations that two state-owned rail firms wrongly claimed millions in subsidies. Switzerland’s official price watchdog said that prices for train...

BLS must pay back CHF43.6 million is wrongly claimed state subsidies. (© Keystone / Christian Beutler) Two more Swiss state-owned transport companies have been ordered to pay back more than CHF50 million ($51 million) in wrongly claimed subsidies. The authorities are also looking into the possibility of criminal prosecutions in connection with the worsening subsidies scandal. Government auditors have targeted Swiss Federal Railways and a transport operator in canton...