Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

read aloud pause X Retail banks have increased investment in digital marketing by 16% in a bid to attract younger clients.  Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link In 2023, budgeted sums in this segment will total CHF 47.6 million ($52.8 million), up 16% on last year, according to an estimate by Colombus Consulting in its study on the digitalisation of the customer experience, published on Thursday.UBS, Postfinance and Raiffeisen...

read aloud pause X The government wants to reduce the annual radio and television licence fee from the current CHF335 ($372) to CHF300 by 2029. The turnover threshold for companies to qualify for exemption has been raised from CHF500,000 to CHF1.2 million. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link On Wednesday the government put out for consultation an amendment to the relevant ordinance. In a press release, the government explains...

Anyone who owns an electric car in Switzerland will have to pay automobile tax from January 1. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link The Federal Council decided on Wednesday to repeal this tax exemption for electric cars, which has been in effect since 1997. The state government decided to make a corresponding change to the automobile tax ordinance on Wednesday, as it announced on Wednesday. The authorities justify the change in three ways: Firstly, it...

Purchasing power in Switzerland is likely to remain under pressure next year. Companies surveyed by UBS want to pay their employees more wages for 2024, but higher salaries cannot compensate for the inflation. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Specifically, the 389 companies surveyed as well as employer and employee associations expect an average wage increase of 1.9% for 2024. Taking into account inflation expected at around 2%, real wages are...

read aloud pause X This year's potato harvest has been disappointing with growers expecting a drop of around a third compared with recent years. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Yields are still difficult to estimate at the moment. The final figures will not be known until early December, Ruedi Fischer, President of the Swiss Potato Growers' Association (USPPT), told press agency Keystone-SDA.+ Switzerland forced to import...

read aloud pause X The European bison, a species that differs slightly from its north American cousin, died out in Europe. Now it is to be reintroduced in Switzerland. Can a densely populated country tolerate such a large wild animal? Christian Raaflaub Radio, TV and online journalist.  More from this author | German Department Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Otto Holzgang, a biologist, stretches one arm out and...

With the ever rising cost of of Swiss healthcare, the government has been hunting for savings. This week it announced that it has ordered price cuts on 350 medicines from 1 December 2023, reported RTS. © Francisco Javier Zea Lara | Dreamstime.comOn average the drugs on the list will cost 10% less and deliver an overall expected saving of CHF 120 million a year. This comes out at around CHF 14 per resident, not a particularly significant sum when set against an...

Every year, investigativ.ch, an association of investigative journalists, bestows an award on the public figure it deems to have exercised the lowest levels of transparency during the year. This year the award went to Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland’s minister of finance, for the secret decision making process surrounding the fire sale of the bank Credit Suisse to UBS, another Swiss bank. The arrangement was backstopped by the federal government, and ultimately...

Consumer prices increased by 0.1% in October 2023, reported Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) this week. Rising prices in October represent a reversal of the 0.1% fall in September 2023. Photo by Kampus Production on Pexels.comOctober’s rise in inflation kept the annual rate of inflation at 1.7%, 0.3 percentage points below the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) preferred maximum of 2% – the SNB equates price stability with a rise in the Swiss consumer...

read aloud pause X Credit Suisse on Friday won a lawsuit at London’s High Court over the sale of $100 million (CHF90.47 million) of notes linked to residential mortgage-backed securities. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Loreley Financing, a special purpose vehicle set up by German bank IKB, sued Credit Suisse over its 2007 purchase of the notes as part of a collateralised debt obligation transaction.The Jersey-registered...