Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

© Rosshelen | Dreamstime.com On average, renting a 4.5 room apartment of 100 to 110 m2 costs CHF 3,820 a month in Geneva. The same apartment in the Swiss city of St. Gallen costs CHF 2,004, 52% of the price, according to a report on rents in Switzerland’s ten main cities by the price comparison website Comparis. For an apartment of this size, Geneva (3,820) is the most expensive, followed by Zurich (3,073), Lausanne...

Nestlé employs almost 10,000 people across Switzerland. (© Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott) Nestle is planning to restructure its operations in the Swiss city of Basel. Up to 100 jobs are threatened by cuts or moving production abroad. Some 177 people are employed at Nestlé’s Basel plant, 100 of which could be under threat over the next 18 months, the Swiss food giant announced on Thursday. The diverse range of products...

© Man Nok Ip | Dreamstime.com Some travelers on Swiss trains could be in for a shock. The price of a GA travel card, an annual pass that allows unlimited travel of the Swiss Rail network, might rise 10% in 2021, according to the newspaper Le Matin. Compared to the price of other passes and tickets, the AG pass is relatively good value, according to a leaked internal document written by CH-direct, a pricing association...

An apartment in Geneva with a trompe-l’oeil facade (image from 2011) (Keystone / Martial Trezzini) Family apartments in Geneva are the most expensive to rent, while those in St Gallen in the east of the country are the cheapest, according to a survey of the ten biggest Swiss cities. The median monthly rent for a 4.5-room apartment (100-110 square metres) in St Gallen costs CHF2,004 ($1,971), according to a survey...

Switzerland invests heavily in public education in terms of spending per student and as a share of public expenditure. (Keystone) Swiss teachers are still working too much unpaid overtime, particularly in German-speaking Switzerland, according to a new survey by two major teachers’ associations. “Swiss teachers have the highest number of working hours of all OECDexternal link countries and work unpaid overtime for...

Opponents of restrictions on gun ownership in Switzerland have not been able to win substantial additional support over the past months, according to an opinion poll ahead of a nationwide vote on May 19. The No camp lags more than 30 percentage points behind the supporters, a survey published by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday as found. The planned corporate tax reform is aimed at putting Swiss...

Last year Swissmedic and the Swiss customs officers seized 15 illegal shipments of Xanax from Cambodia, Hungary and other countries (Swissmedic) The Federal Customs Administration seized 3,203 shipments of illegally imported medicines in 2018 – triple the amount of the previous year. Erectile stimulants remain at the top of the list of illegally imported substances, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products...

© Tpibernik | Dreamstime.com Last week, Antonio Hodgers, the head of Geneva’s executive, announced a ban on the erection of further 5G mobile antennas in the canton, according to an interview on RTS. Motivated by uncertainty on the potential health effects of the new technology, the temporary freeze is the most the cantonal government can do to stop the rollout of the technology. Switzerland’s federal government in Bern...

Like the other lagging European investment banks (Deutsche and SocGen immediately spring to mind), UBS is resorting to the last resort of the embattled megabank CEO when shareholders are demanding higher profits ‘or else’. After a decade where UBS cut thousands of jobs in its investment bank unit, Sergio Ermotti is turning to one of the few business lines where fat can feasibly be cut: UBS’s once legendary...

Several IT companies and the Swiss government administration are involved in one of the biggest corruption cases in recent years. (© Keystone/Christian Beutler) Four suspects have been sentenced in a major corruption case involving a unit of the Swiss economics ministry. But the main defendant is still awaiting a formal indictment. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) announced on Wednesday that a trustee was given...