Tag Archives: 3.) Swiss Info

The free market in Switzerland has built housing units that remain empty because they are too expensive, or in out-of-the-way places, says Marina Carobbio Guscetti. The Social Democrat senator believes that the initiative “More affordable housing” will fix these problems. It will help the middle class and the less well-off. Apart from health insurance premiums, rent is the biggest item in many family budgets. Since 2005, in spite of lower interest rates and a...

The SNB said its interventions were transparent and ‘motivated purely by monetary policy’ (Keystone) The US Treasury has called on the Swiss government to cut taxes and spend more public money, after it added the country to a watchlist of those it accuses of currency manipulation. The Swiss franc nudged up to a near three-year high against the euro on Tuesday as markets anticipated the move would limit the Swiss National Bank’s appetite for aggressive action to try...

The US Treasury said it was also closely monitoring the interventions of the Swiss National Bank in the foreign exchange market (© Keystone / Ti-press / Alessandro Crinari) The US Treasury Department has put Switzerland back on a biannual list of countries that are under observation because of large trade surpluses with the United States. Switzerland was previously included on the Monitoring Listexternal link between October 2016 and October 2018, “having a material...

Opponents of the tax breaks say it will not benefit the middle class and would be a gift for wealthy families instead. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Opponents of a proposal to increase tax deductions for parents have succeeded in collecting enough signatures to force a referendum on the subject. On Tuesday the leftwing Social Democratic Party submitted the necessary signatures required to trigger a referendum. The party is opposed to a “tax bonus for rich parents” and...

Injection of pressurised water underground creates a lot of pressure in the spaces between the rocks and is believed to be responsible for minor tremors. (Keystone / George Frey / Raser Technologies) Identifying the kind of fault or tectonic forces in an underground reservoir can reduce the risk of tremors caused by geothermal energy or carbon storage. The injection of cold pressurised water into hot impermeable rocks several kilometres underground is how underground...

A meeting a a regional job centre, or RAV, in German, here in Thun (staged picture) (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) The Swiss unemployment rate fell to 2.3% in 2019, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). That’s the lowest yearly rate for almost 20 years. SECO said in a statementexternal link on Friday that 106,932 people were registered with regional job centres in 2019, 9.5% less than in the previous year. The only blip: the rate rose to a...

It will be Trump’s first trip outside the US since becoming only the third American president to be impeached (Keystone) US President Donald Trump plans to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos this month, making up for an appearance he cancelled during last year’s US government shutdown. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham confirmed on Wednesday that Trump would attend the annual forumexternal...

Union federation chief Pierre-Yves Maillard and vice-president Vania Alleva, on Thursday. (Keystone / Marcel Bieri) Switzerland’s largest trade union group has repeated its warning that any framework deal reached with the European Union must respect measures to protect wages from cross-border competition. At the annual conference of the Swiss Trade Union Federationexternal link on Thursday, the objective of keeping wage measures in place was hammered home by group...

The methanation gas containers at Regio Energie Solothurn (Keystone) Flatulent bacteria, electric vehicles and a supply network for greenhouses are among the winners of this year’s Watt d’Or competitionexternal link organised by the Federal Office of Energy. “What is the link between flatulence and renewable energy?” the energy office asked. “The answer is Archie, the farting archaeobacteria.” Archie picked up the award in the “renewable energy” category, presented...

The SNB made a profit of around CHF40 billion from its foreign currency positions and a valuation gain of CHF6.9 billion on its gold holdings (Keystone) The Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects to post an annual profit of CHF49 billion ($50.29 billion) for 2019, it said on Thursday, citing big gains from foreign bonds and stocks bought to dampen the value of the safe-haven Swiss franc. The profit, following a loss of CHF15 billion in 2018, means the central bank will...