Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

The Swiss online shopping trend is particularly benefiting foreign retailers. Online shopping accounts for an ever bigger slice of the Swiss retail market as shopping via smartphone also becomes more popular with consumers, says a new report. Last year, Swiss consumers placed online orders worth a total of almost CHF 10 billion ($10 billion), according to the “E-Commerce Report 2019” published on Thursday. This...

© Marc Bruxelle _ Dreamstime.com In 2018, Switzerland and the EU struck a deal to extend Swiss stock market equivalence until 30 June 2019, a date fast approaching. Stock market equivalence makes a trade on the Swiss stock exchange equivalent to a trade on an exchange in an EU country. This allows trades to be pooled across countries, something that supports global trade and improves international market liquidity, a...

One million dollars in Switzerland won’t buy you a mansion, but it’s not bad. Switzerland is home to the fourth-largest number of dollar millionaire households, according to a report by the Boston Consultancy Group (BCG). Worldwide, the number of such millionaires continues to rise. There are now some 500,000 millionaire households in Switzerland, BCG said, putting the Swiss in fourth place behind the US (around 15...

Around 30% of young adults in Switzerland have faced financial difficulties at least once in their lives Around 30% of young adults in Switzerland have faced financial difficulties, according to data from the Young Adult Survey Switzerland (YASS). The survey, which questions some 70,000 19-year-olds around the country every four years, aims to gain an “empiric and interdisciplinary insight” into the “educational...

General Electric Switzerland has already slashed some 2,000 posts since 2016. (© Keystone / Urs Flueeler) United States engineering giant General Electric has revealed it will cut a further 450 jobs at two of its Swiss sites. Since 2016, the company has already shed some 2,000 workers. The company, which generated profits of $954 million (CHF952 million) last year, blamed the latest cuts on “financially challenging...

© Andrii Yalanskyi | Dreamstime.com One idea for containing rising healthcare costs was to remove the possibility of changing health insurance deductibles every year, making it possible only every three years. If people are able to switch from high to low deductibles annually then they can save money by opting for a high deductible one year, while postponing visits to the doctor until the following year when they opt...

Metalor is one of the world’s biggest gold refineries. Swiss gold refinery Metalor Technologies has announced it will no longer deal with artisanal mining operations. The company cites the increasing cost of ensuring that gold is being produced by small mines in compliance with human rights and environmental standards. Metalorexternal link has come under repeated fire for doing business with gold mines in South America...

An activist impersonating former Raiffeisen CEO Pierin Vincenz who faced accusations of enriching himself thanks to poor board governance. Switzerland’s third largest bank will limit the annual remuneration of top management to CHF1 million (around $1million) from July 1. The announcement was made at the bank’s general meeting on Saturday in Crans-Montana. CEO Heinz Huber’s compensation has already been adjusted when he...

The high price of drugs in Switzerland has been partially blamed for driving up medical insurance costs. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) The cost of health insurance in Switzerland is expected to rise 3% both this year and next, warns the umbrella group for health insurers, Santésuisse. This is way above the forecast rise in consumer goods prices of 0.9% for 2019. On Monday, Santésuisseexternal link outlined the main...

© RESTAURANT DE L’HÔTEL DE VILLE A ranking by Elite Traveler placed the restaurant Hôtel de Ville de Crissier first in a list of the world’s 100 best restaurants, eight places higher than last year. The ranking is based on the votes of readers of the magazine, which is distributed to private jet companies around the world. Franck Giovannini, the restaurant’s chef, follows a long line of award winning chefs at the...