Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

© Georgejmclittle | Dreamstime.com The National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, rejected a motion to force Swiss mobile phone operators to remove EU roaming charges. 99 voted against, 78 for and 14 abstained, according to the newspaper 20 Minutes. In 2017, the European Union (EU) forced EU operators to stop charging their customers extra for calls made outside their home country but within the EU. This left Swiss...

Ten currencies, including the Japanese yen, were traded in the banks’ foreign exchange spot markets. (Keystone) The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) has fined five international banks for their involvement in the formation of cartels that manipulated the foreign exchange market. COMCO fined Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the MUFG Bank a total of CHF90 million ($90.6 million) for...

A small charge on single-use plastic bags has cut their use by 86% in two years, say food retailers. (Keystone) Consumption of single-use plastic bags in some 30 Swiss food retailers has dropped 86% since they introduced a small charge in 2016. The charge of CHF0.05 (an American nickel) per bag was introduced voluntarily under a sectoral agreement in response to a parliamentary move that would have banned single-use...

(Ti-press) The number of packages processed by the Swiss Postexternal link office’s three parcel centres has been rising steadily since they opened 20 years ago. During that time, the centres in Härkingen, Daillens and Frauenfeld have handled more than 3.1 billion packages. On average, 800,000 parcels roll along their conveyor belts per day, Swiss Post announced on Mondayexternal link. On peak days during the Christmas...

Sunrise, who is to buy UPC for CHF6.3 billion, expects the deal to go through in Autumn. COMCO, the Swiss Competition Commission, is to intensify its investigation of telecoms operator Sunrise’s takeover of UPC Switzerland, amid fears that the move could create positions of market dominance in several areas. Making the announcementexternal link Monday, COMCO wrote that “initial investigations showed that the buyout...

© Bogdan Lazar | Dreamstime.com Every year, Lausanne-based IMD business school publishes its global competitiveness ranking. Switzerland climbed from 5th last year to 4th behind Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. Venezuela (63rd) was last. The ranking, established in 1989, incorporates 235 indicators and takes into account a wide range of “hard” statistics such as unemployment, GDP and government spending on health and...

There was a 3.1% jump in the number of goats in 2018, especially in mountain regions. (Keystone / Arno Balzarini) Last year 768 farmers in Switzerland called it quits, while others increased their livestock numbers and production of organic food. Figures released this week by the Swiss Federal Statistical Officeexternal link revealed a 1.5% drop in the number of farms, bringing the total down to 50,852. However, the...

Switzerland is ranked the most attractive destination for international students. Switzerland is one of the most attractive locations for highly qualified foreign workers, according to a new study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In a ranking of 35 countries presented on Wednesday, Switzerland comes third behind Australia and Sweden as an attractive destination for skilled workers...

View of the main building of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich. IMD ranked Switzerland highly for its university and management education. Switzerland is Europe’s most competitive nation, coming fourth in the annual global ranking of the Lausanne-based IMD business school. The small Alpine nation climbed from fifth to fourth place in the 63-country competitiveness ranking. It was helped by economic...

(Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott) In a comparison of European solar and wind power generation, Switzerland ranks near the bottom. Per year and inhabitant, Switzerland produces 250 kilowatt hours of solar (236kWh) and wind (14kWh) power – the amount needed to power a dishwasher, roughly. This puts Switzerland in 25th place when compared with the 28 European Union nations, according to a study published by the Swiss...