Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

People walking through the city centre of the Swiss capital, Bern © Keystone / Christian Beutler The Swiss population is set to surpass the 9 million mark in 2023, according to calculations by the SonntagsZeitung. “If the permanent and non-permanent resident population are added together, Switzerland is likely to exceed the threshold of nine million inhabitants this year,” the newspaper wrote on Sunday. Since the introduction of the free movement of people with...

Legal cases: Passengers can now claim more compensation for delayed or lost luggage Keystone / Alessandro Crinari From getting a drone licence to paying for Covid tests, here’s a selection of ten legal tweaks that came into force in Switzerland on January 1. AIRLINES: Passengers can claim more compensation for delayed or lost luggage – up to around CHF1,640 ($1,770). Previously it was CHF1,520. The tedious paperwork hasn’t changed, however. INHERITANCE LAW:...

Syngenta employees carry out research on corn in Stein, canton Aargau, in November 2021. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Firms invested CHF16.8 billion ($18 billion) in research and development (R&D) activities in Switzerland last year, a 4% increase compared to 2019. A survey carried out by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and the Swiss Business Federation economiesuisse said the pharmaceutical sector was the biggest R&D investor (CHF6.2 billion, or 37% of the...

Switzerland plans to enact laws to prevent price manipulation and insider trading in its domestic energy markets. Energy Minister Simonetta Sommaruga unveiled the plans on Friday, saying the reforms are needed to secure Switzerland’s energy security. The proposed reforms would force energy companies to open their books to the energy regulator Elcom to give the authorities early warnings of supply problems. Insider trading and price manipulations are currently...

Buildings near Kyiv destroyed by a Russian airstrike on December 14. The war in Ukraine is one factor weighing down the Swiss economy. Keystone / Oleg Petrasyuk Growth forecasts for Switzerland have been revised downwards for the current year and 2023 by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, amid fears of a global recession and the war in Ukraine. The economists also changed their predictions for inflation. The KOF Consensus Forecast expects gross domestic product (GDP)...

Christmas shoppers on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Swiss consumers have budgeted more for Christmas presents this year despite the growing spectre of inflation. The average shopper plans to splash out CHF343 ($367) on presents, up CHF9 from the average spend in 2021. The cost of consumer goods has risen around 3% in recent months, which is well below the inflation rate of other countries but still above the 2% target set by the Swiss National...

Switzerland is the global leader in metal recycling, a lucrative business that attracts international interest. We visit a pioneering Swiss waste disposal and recycling plant with a delegation from Japan. Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990. Thomas Kern has won twice a World Press Award and has...

When Credit Suisse asked its board member Michael Klein to find capital to help its painful restructuring push, the former Citibank executive with ties in the Middle East ended up in a series of meetings with a powerful Saudi bank little known outside the Gulf. Klein, who is also taking over Credit Suisse’s spun-off investment bank, walked away with a $1.5 billion (CHF1.4 billion) cheque. As recessions deepen in the west, some are looking at the investment by the...

Keystone / Ennio Leanza Swiss cement giant Holcim said on Wednesday it would leave Russia, adding that the business there would then operate independently under a different brand. Holcim has signed an agreement to sell its Russian unit to the local management team, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The sale will have “no significant impact” on the world’s biggest cement maker, as the unit generated less than 1% of the group’s net sales in 2021, it said. Holcim...

Nestlé plans to create about 1,500 additional jobs in Ukraine. Keystone/Laurent Gillieron The Swiss multinational Nestlé says it will invest CHF40 million ($42. million) to launch a new production facility in western Ukraine. The world largest food and beverage company is one of very few international companies to announce new investments in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February. A senior Nestlé manager described it as a important move in a...