Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

© Aquanaut4 | Dreamstime.com Lombardy, the region in northern Italy where the coronavirus outbreak first took off in Europe, now has fewer per capita cases testing positive for the virus than some Swiss cantons. Recent data from Italy show there were 179 cases per 100,000 in Lombardy. In Ticino, Switzerland’s worst affected canton, there were 329 cases per 100,000. Geneva (231) and Vaud (211) had Switzerland’s next highest rates. In percentage terms Ticino (+84%),...

A Zurich-bound train in St Gallen on Monday morning. (Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller) Swiss public transport has been widely reduced as of Monday, with the Federal Railways cutting back on services as part of nationwide anti-coronavirus measures. The scaling back of Europe’s most-used rail network in an effort to combat the spread of Covid-19 was announced last week as part of wider measures to reduce social contact and slow down the pace of life in the country. As of...

A number of projects around the world aim to create digital versions of money. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Sygnum bank has launched a digital version of the Swiss franc (DCHF) to allow faster payments when trading a new breed of securities. The DCHF digital tokens will be backed by the corresponding amount of Swiss francs that Sygnum will hold at the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Sygnum is part of a consortium of companies taking part in the SDX digital assets trading...

Many high street stores have been told to close their doors. (Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott) A CHF42 billion coronavirus financial aid package may not be enough to save firms from extinction, warn business leaders and economists. The state could be saddled with a bill three times higher if the crisis drags on until the end of the year. Earlier this week, the government increased its emergency funding from CHF10 billion to CHF42 billion ($42.6 billion). Some CHF14...

The Swiss healthcare system will be tested over the coming weeks, experts warn. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Three Swiss hospitals have agreed to provide intensive care treatment for six seriously ill coronavirus patients from the neighbouring Alsace region of France. However, experts fear that Switzerland’s health infrastructure will soon be stretched by the rising number of pandemic victims. Two hospitals in Basel and one in Jura, in northwestern Switzerland, said...

© Pongmoji | Dreamstime.com COVID-19 has hit the world fast and we are racing to understand it, while struggling to come to terms with its deadly impact. When trying to estimate the impact, it is tempting to take the current number of deaths and divide it by the number of reported cases. However, the resulting percentage is meaningless. Here’s why: Jumping the gun If we divide the current number of deaths in South Korea with the current number of cases so far we get...

The coronavirus has spread to 173 countries as of March 19. (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) The upheaval caused by the coronavirus, Covid-19, is all around us. And I know many are anxious, worried and confused. That’s absolutely natural. We are facing a health threat unlike any other in our lifetimes. Meanwhile, the virus is spreading, the danger is growing, and our health systems, economies and day-to-day lives are being severely tested....

Efforts are underway to provide additional medical devices and beds in intensive care units in Ticino. (Keystone/Alessandro Crinari) The Swiss health authorities have raised alarm over the limited care facilities in one of its regions hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic. “The situation in Ticino is dramatic,” said Daniel Koch of the Federal Office of Public Health at a news conference on Thursday. He said it was foreseeable that the hospitals in canton Ticino,...

The grounding of the fleets of many airlines is symptomatic of the crisis.  (© Keystone / Christian Beutler) The global banking industry is demanding regulators relax or delay a raft of post-crisis rules on everything from capital and liquidity to accounting and climate change, which they argue are hampering their ability to respond to the coronavirus crisis. Executives have launched the globally co-ordinated push to convince supervisors including the Bank of...

Last week, the Swiss stock exchanges experienced their worst fall since the financial crisis of 2008 (Keystone / Arne Dedert) The coronavirus has laid bare the fragilities and complex dependencies generated by globalisation. American-Swiss professor Suzanne de Treville, a specialist in helping firms relocate their industrial activities to the west, hopes that this crisis will trigger some major soul-searching. Covid-19 is on the verge of bringing the world economy to...