Tag Archives: 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy

Today, airplanes account for 2-3% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but their share has been growing rapidly and is expected to triple by 2050. © Keystone / Christian Beutler The Swiss aviation sector, which includes Swiss International Air Lines and Zurich Airport, has pledged to slash CO2 emissions and make flying net zero by 2050. On Tuesday, Zurich, Geneva and Basel airports, together with SWISS, Easyjet, and the umbrella organisation Swiss Business...

David Solo’s role in supply-chain firm Greensill’s pursuit of Swiss riches was pivotal Keystone / Steffen Schmidt In late 2014, David Solo lent A$12.2 million (CHF8.5 million) to a little-known supply-chain finance group with eye-catching claims. Greensill Capital, which was trying to muscle in on a corner of finance dominated for decades by banks, vowed to make “finance fairer” and declared that it would be “democratising capital”. The cheque was helpful, but the...

Paper mountain: applications for short-time working compensation in canton Vaud, April 2020. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott The Swiss Federal Audit Office says it is worried by a surge in fraud cases linked to the short-time working system, a key pillar of the country’s economic response to Covid-19. The office’s director Michel Huissoud told public radio SRF on Monday he was “shocked by the number of complaints, mistakes, and abuses” recorded to date. As many as...

Death threats, insults, posters vandalised or set on fire: the campaign for two initiatives against pesticides to be put to the vote on June 13 is extremely tense. This toxic climate highlights a deep malaise in the Swiss agricultural world. Scenes of vandalism are becoming regular features as two initiatives that seek to ban pesticides come to a vote in June. Union suisse des paysans “My children live in fear because they have suffered attacks and insults on social...

In Brussels there was shock and anger. In Switzerland, quiet celebration and relief — but, for some, doubts about what exactly comes next. An employee checks an oscillating surgical bone saw blade at the company Gomina in Niederwald, canton Valais, Switzerland, in 2018. The Swiss medical devices sector, which exports almost half of all devices to the EU, is expected to be affected by Switzerland’s decision to pull out of an institutional framework agreement with the...

Jordan, shown at a news conference last year, warns of neglecting the risks of inflation. Keystone/Anthony Anex The Swiss National Bank (SNB) can expand its balance sheet further if needed, says chairman of the board Thomas Jordan. “A big balance sheet is per se no problem. We can expand the balance sheet further, if monetary policy so requires,” he told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. The SNB’s holdings of foreign exchange...

Alain Berset, right, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a bilateral meeting in Geneva on Monday to sign a memo of understanding on the BioHub Initiative Keystone / Laurent Gillieron Switzerland and the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed to launch the first WHO BioHub Facility. This will enhance the rapid sharing of viruses and other pathogens between laboratories and partners globally. Under the agreement, signed at the 74th World Health Assembly in...

A Covid credit programme has helped boost the reputation of Swiss banks, despite some of them being the target of climate protests. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Swiss people’s trust in their country’s banks is at its highest in 20 years, boosted by Covid credits and a commitment to sustainability, according to a new survey. People from almost all political camps have a positive perception, with 75% describing their attitude towards Swiss banks as positive or very...

While rich Swiss residents figure in Bloomberg’s top 500 world’s wealthiest, there are nine Americans in the top ten slot. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally In the latest version of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, eight Swiss or Swiss-resident names figure among the 500 richest people in the world. The richest of the Alpine-based billionaires is Geneva-based Ernesto Bertarelli, who according to his own self-description is a “Swiss entrepreneur active in the fields of...

Switzerland used to be a place where the rich came with their money to escape the world’s problems, not to confront them. Ethical investing: a bright future for the financial centres of Zurich and Geneva? © Keystone / Gaetan Bally These days, the private banks that dot the pristine streets of Zurich and Geneva are no exception when it comes to the wave of enthusiasm that has broken over the asset management world for better environmental, social and governance...