Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Switzerland need to act to ensure the safety of its drinking water supplies in future. Pollution from agriculture, former industrial sites and landfills is threatening Switzerland’s groundwater reserves, according to a detailed study of water quality. The water quality studyexternal link from the Federal Office for the Environmentexternal link (FOEN), released on Thursday, said groundwater faces the greatest pressures in areas of high farming activity. It stated that...

The culprit was a head of strategy at Roche, which is headquartered in Switzerland at the Roche tower in Basel. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined Lorenz Erne, a former senior executive at Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche, for insider trading and ordered him to pay back the ill-gotten profits. Erne accepted the accusations and agreed to the terms of a settlement with the SEC, according to an SEC documentexternal link published on Thursday....

In a recent comparison of taxi fares across Europe, Geneva and Zurich were the most expensive. © Corepics Vof | Dreamstime.com In the study, which focused on the total cost of a taxi journey from the airport to the centre of town, Geneva (€36 – CHF40) and Zurich (€63 – CHF70) fared better than Milan (€105) and London (€104), which had the highest total journey costs. However, this is only because Zurich and Geneva airports are close to the city centre. The...

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and a key financial hub for the world. Switzerland’s financial centre has a positive reputation abroad, despite a string of scandals in 2018, according to a 19-nation survey conducted by Presence Suisse. The reputation and quality of Swiss banks were rated as “good” to “very good” by most respondents in the international poll of 12,767 people. The ethics and responsibility of the Swiss banking sector are also well regarded....

Climate will be a big debating point for October’s parliamentary elections. (© Keystone / Peter Klaunzer) Analysis of survey questions filled out by Swiss politicians in 2015 and 2019 shows a marked turnaround in attitudes towards the introduction of a carbon tax on fuel. The Smartvote online platformexternal link asks politicians various attitudinal questions in an effort to help voters make up their minds in the lead...

At its annual press conference in January, Novartis focused on “transformative treatments” – a therapy based on the belief that illness may be caused by the subconscious influences. Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has dismissed criticism that it allegedly withheld information about animal testing data inaccuracies to United States authorities for a human gene therapy. Novartisexternal link said its subsidiary in...

Swissmetal has a long history beginning in the second half of the 19th century. But the company came under growing pressure in the 1980s as a result of international competition. The cash-strapped Baoshida Swissmetal company has been taken over by a group of Swiss investors six years after it was sold to a Chinese group. The newly-founded Swissmetal Industries, backed by two private investors, said it had acquired the...

The Swiss franc has started to appreciate in value against other currencies, including the euro, once again. One knock-on effect of the escalating trade war between the United States and China is that the Swiss franc is becoming more attractive for investors – putting pressure on the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to come to the defence of the safe haven currency. For much of July a euro bought at least CHF1.10. But the...

Admiring the view above Lake Lucerne, central Switzerland. American visitors to Switzerland have increased by over 40% in five years and represent a major growth motor for the tourism industry, annual statistics show. Chinese and Indian tourists are often seen as the future of Swiss tourism, the SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche newspapers reported at the weekend. However, they say, “North America is the real growth...

© Mr.phonlawat Chaicheevinlikit | Dreamstime.com In 2018, 830,000 people in Switzerland were unable to find the work they wanted, according the Federal Statistical Office. While 243,000 were looking but not immediately available and 231,000 were unemployed, most (356,000) were underemployed – working but unable to find as many hours of work as they’d like. The additional hours sought by underemployed workers was...