Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Travelling within cities is good value in Switzerland Using public transport infrequently in Switzerland is expensive, but thanks to new special offers such as “early bird” rates Switzerland does well when it comes to value for money, according to an international study. “Travelling by train, bus or boat is expensive in Switzerland,” is a common refrain among Swiss people – and especially tourists. But this is partially...

Swiss cows have to be in shape to make it up the mountain for summer (Keystone) Many Swiss cows are getting too heavy for soft Alpine pastures, too wide for their stalls and too gluttonous for their owners. An interest group is now calling for cows to be bred that are smaller, lighter and more easily sated. Some cows are more than 1.60 metres (5’3”) in height and tip the scales at more than 800 kilograms (1,760...

Istituto Svizzero, the Swiss cultural centre in Rome, gets some welcome shade thanks to a computer-designed, robot-built pergola. The four-metre tall construction was inaugurated in June and was the handiwork of 17 architecture students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ). The pergola was put together without using nails, glue or screws. The structure is made completely of timber and is held...

In 2015, the cost of time lost due to delays caused by heavy vehicles, like freight trucks, was CHF444 million. Various costs related to traffic jams totalled CHF1.9 billion ($1.9 billion) in 2015, up 7% from 2010, according to the Swiss Office for Spatial Development. In a statementexternal link released on Wednesday (link in French, German and Italian), the office said that costs stemming from wasted time accounted...

Swiss Trade Union Federation President Paul Rechsteiner, pictured, said unions would go as far as forcing a referendum to ensure that Switzerland protects wages autonomously. (Keystone) Switzerland’s largest national trade union centre has refused to participate in discussions led by Swiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann on easing measures for wages and working conditions as part of framework negotiations...

Kamm was director of the MCH Group which organises the world’s largest watch fair in Basel since 2003. (Keystone) The head of the world’s largest watch and jewellery trade show, the Swiss-based Baselworld, has handed in his resignation amid a row over the departure of several exhibitors. The MCH Group announced that CEO Peter Kamm would resign from his position “in view of the fundamental transformation phase in...

“It’s not concrete enough to suspect all French with a UBS account” when looking for tax evaders. Pictured here: UBS on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich (Keystone) Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court has ordered the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) not to provide France with details about 40,000 UBS bank clients with French addresses. In May 2016, the French tax authorities requested administrative assistance from the...

This upper secondary school in Glarus already has IT lessons Computer science has become obligatory at Swiss upper secondary schools, as the country seeks to plug its information technology (IT) skills gap. These schools (Gymnasium/lyceé/liceo), whose pupils typically go on to university, have until the school year 2022/3 to introduce the compulsory lessons, under a regulation change that came into force on August 1....

Recently, members of the young socialists raised the debate of the social inequalities associated with two ticket classes again while on trains travelling between Fribourg and Bern. ©-Justforever-_-Dreamstime.com_ - Click to enlarge They complain that at periods of peak demand second class carriages are overflowing, while first class ones often have space and spare seats. Yvan Rime, co-president of the young socialists...

Swiss National Bank Chairman, Thomas Jordan, pictured in April 2018. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has reported strong profits for the first half of the year, largely thanks to a weakening franc and gains in the foreign currency market. The results, published in an SNB press releaseexternal link on Tuesday, show overall profits of CHF5.11 billion ($5.17 billion) for the first six months of 2018, compared with CHF1.22...