Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

The percentage of Switzerland’s workers working for themselves has been slowly declining. In 2010, 13.7% of workers were self-employed. By 2017, the figure was 12.8% – self-employed includes those working as independents and those working for companies they own. Swiss (14.5%) are far more likely to be self-employed than foreigners (7.9%). This is partly explained by the low number of foreign farmers – farming is the...

According to the annual wealth report produced by Credit Suisse, Switzerland leads on wealth per adult with US$ 530,240, comfortably ahead of second-placed Australia where the figure is US$ 411,060. The US is third with US$ 403,060. © Sam74100 | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge During the twelve months to mid-2018, aggregate global wealth rose by US$ 14.0 trillion to US$ 317 trillion, a growth rate of 4.6%. Wealth per...

Many demands for tax payments were not sent out (Keystone) The Federal Tax Administration’s IT project Insieme was a financial disaster and its replacement isn’t much better, according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO). Systems are unreliable and underperforming, with billions in tax demands still outstanding. The old application for direct federal tax, withholding tax and stamp duty was replaced in October 2017...

Protectionism has cross-party support in the U.S., and nationalist parties continue to gain traction in Europe. Where there is inequality, there is a surge in protectionism; a risk that could trigger the next global economic crisis sometime around 2020. The Trump administration’s trade war and a hard Brexit could send tariffs to levels not seen in 15 years, according to UBS economist, as per Market Watch. The Swiss bank...

Economics Minister Schneider-Ammann (second from right) and his counterparts from Austria, Germany and Liechtenstein attended a panel discussion at the ETH Zurich on digitalisation. A campaign has been launched to promote digitalisation in small companies based in Swiss mountain regions. On Wednesday, the Federation of Adult Learningexternal link and Swiss Mountain Aidexternal link presented a project for companies with...

© Man Nok Ip | Dreamstime.com Swiss Rail announced on Thursday that it would test free WiFi, named FreeSurf, on certain routes next year with a plan to extend the offer to all major routes from 2020, according to RTS. Train passengers benefiting from the tests in 2019 will be those travelling on InterCity trains between Lausanne and St. Gallen, Geneva and Zurich, and Bienne and Basel. Swiss Rail has not chosen Swisscom...

Home to just 0.1% of the world’s population, Switzerland accounts for 1.8% of the top 1% of global wealth holders (Keystone) Despite a slight decline in fortunes, the Swiss still enjoy the highest mean wealth per adult, according to the 2018 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report. The reportexternal link, released on Thursday, estimated the average fortune of a Swiss adult to be $530,240 (CHF527,707) compared to $537,600...

Looking for a house on Lake Zurich? Be prepared to pay CHF 2.5 million for a medium-sized house. (Keystone) Apartment prices have risen in every district in Switzerland in the last eleven years except for one. Zurich tops the list with a median price of CHF 13,000 ($1313) per square metre – a 97% increase since 2007. This is according to a study by the Zurich Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) in partnership with...

© Nwanda76 _ Dreamstime.com Switzerland exported close to 18% more arms over the first nine months of 2018 than it did in the first nine months of 2017, according to figures published by State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). According to the numbers, in the nine months to 30 September 2018, Swiss companies exported close to CHF 300 million of arms, nearly CHF 45 million or 17.6% more than over the same period...

More than 100 countries out of the 140 ranked in the WEF Global Competitiveness Index score lower than 50 (out of 100) in the area of innovation capabilities. A major update to the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index reveals that the global economy is ill-prepared for the transformation brought on by technology disruption. While the United States comes the closest to the “competitive frontier”...