Tag Archives: 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy

Fewer people were able to attend cinemas during the pandemic year of 2020. © Keystone / Thomas Delley Ticket sales at Swiss cinemas plummeted by two-thirds last year as venues were forced to close their doors. Of the films that could be shown, Swiss movies made up a greater share of the total offering. Official statistics out on Tuesday revealed the economic impact of Covid-19 on Switzerland’s 263 cinema theatres. Income fell from CHF193 million ($208 million) in...

Savings deposits, loans and jobs could be threatened if a major Swiss bank were to collapse. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Three of Switzerland’s “too big to fail” banks no longer threaten to cause a seismic shift in the economy should they collapse, says the financial regulator. Zurich Cantonal Bank, PostFinance and the Raiffeisen banking group are now deemed to have put into place credible plans for an orderly bankruptcy. The trio focus primarily on the domestic...

Some 27% percent of the population over the age of 15 smokes in Switzerland. © Keystone / Melanie Duchene The Swiss parliament is currently debating tightening restrictions on advertising of tobacco products. This comes after a people’s initiative calls for a radical advertising ban to protect children. Parliament is currently discussing whether to tighten Switzerland’s current tobacco laws, which are some of the most liberal in the world. The draft bill would...

Japan’s central bank is keeping down the cost of national debt – but is their a hidden price? Keystone / Katsumi Kasahara The cost of paying off spiralling national debt in the United States and Switzerland is rising as interest rates increase. This makes the financing of pandemic expenditure more expensive. That’s not a problem in Japan where the central bank is holding interest rates in check. Would the Japanese recipe also be something for Switzerland? The US...

Bitcoin Suisse has spent heavily on advertising, as on this city tram, but has failed to convince the regulator of its credentials to become a bank. / Karin Hofer Cryptocurrency firm Bitcoin Suisse has withdrawn its application for a banking license, in part because it failed to meet the anti-money laundering requirements of the Swiss financial regulator. “The application process has shown the need for further reviews of the anti-money laundering framework and...

UN economist Ian Richards argues that Swiss voters’ fears of a proposal for an e-ID may be swept away as more countries see the benefits of digitising documents, including vaccine passports. A week ago the Swiss public voted overwhelmingly to reject a digital identity scheme that would have given each Swiss citizen and resident an official login and password to open bank accounts, vote, or buy train tickets and ski passes online. The login would be certified,...

The hackers said they wanted to raise awareness about mass surveillance © Keystone / Christian Beutler Swiss authorities on Monday confirmed a police raid at the home of a Swiss hacker who took credit for helping to break into a US security-camera company’s online networks, part of what the hacker cited as an effort to raise awareness about the dangers of mass surveillance. The Federal Office of Justice said regional police in central Lucerne, acting on a legal...

Far more people ordered goods by parcel during the pandemic. © Keystone / Peter Klaunzer The Covid-19 pandemic cost the state-owned Swiss postal service CHF139 million ($150 million) last year, which was largely responsible for driving down profits by 30%. Swiss Post delivered a record 182.7 million parcels in 2020, up nearly a quarter in volume from the previous year. But the number of letters being posted declined by 5.6%. The pandemic also negatively impacted the...

The team carried out investigations into the presence of rare earth metals in sewage at 63 treatment plants across Switzerland. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Rare earth metals like cerium and gadolinium, which are used in industry and hospitals, are increasingly being detected at Swiss wastewater plants, new research shows. For the first time scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) carried out investigations into the...

The Swiss government has started to cautiously lift several Covid restrictions put in place in mid-January to reduce infection levels. Shops, museums and sports facilities re-opened from March 1 but restaurants and bars remain closed. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott After a weak start to the year, Switzerland’s economy should recover rapidly from a heavy coronavirus-driven slump to grow by 3% in 2021, the government said on Thursday. Gross domestic product will fall...