Tag Archives: Business

The cost of energy is a less important factor for the Swiss consumer price index than in other countries. Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella Consumer prices in Switzerland increased by 0.6% on average last year, according to the Federal Statistics Office. The rise is due in particular to higher prices for petroleum products and for housing rentals. In contrast, prices for international package holidays and medicines decreased, the officeExternal link said on Tuesday....

The Swiss watch industry has retained staff in 2021 Keystone / Martin Ruetschi The annual census of the Swiss watch industry labour force found that partial unemployment helped the industry weather the pandemic over the last year. The number of employees in the industry remained stable in 2021 while the share of high skilled staff increased. There are just under 60,000 people working in the watchmaking industry in Switzerland, which is less than a 1% decrease from...

Stöckli is one of Switzerland’s oldest ski manufacturers. swissinfo.ch / Dominique Soguel-dit-Picard Shortages of raw materials and logistics bottlenecks have made 2021 a tough year for Swiss manufacturers, and contributed to a downgrade in the government’s GDP growth forecast for the economy next year. Swissinfo.ch’s India specialist covers a wide range of issues from bilateral relations to Bollywood. He also knows a thing or two about Swiss watchmaking and is...

Switzerland’s second largest bank is now bracing for several class-action lawsuits from clients, experts say. Keystone/Urs Flüeler The Credit Suisse bank has fired the managers overseeing a multi-billion-dollar fund strategy linked to the now-defunct Greensill Capital. Switzerland’s second largest bank was forced to freeze and wind down a $10 billion (CHF9.2 billion) fund range amid huge financial losses. The Zurich-based bank dismissed former head of asset...

Central banks have come to the fore in recent years by printing money to keep economies afloat. Keystone / Lm Otero Every other month, the world’s most influential central bank governors gather in Basel to swap notes, reinforce personal ties and untangle the technical details of keeping money flowing around the world. Since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, central banks have emerged from dull obscurity to print trillions in multiple currencies. The pandemic has...

Rival UBS’s wealth business has left Credit Suisse trailing in the past couple of years. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza Credit Suisse has hired the former chief executive of Australian finance group AMP to run its revamped wealth management division, as the Swiss lender tries to win market share from its domestic rival UBS. Francesco De Ferrari, who worked for Credit Suisse between 2002 and 2018, left AMP in June after a tough two years running the Australian wealth...

Earlier this year, the bank, which was set up in 1965, announced it is ceasing private banking. Headquartered in Zurich, the bank has had subsidiaries in Geneva, Hongkong and Singapore as well as representations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and London. © Keystone/Ennio Leanza A Swiss court has found the Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank guilty of money-laundering offences. The Federal Criminal CourtExternal link on Wednesday ordered the Abu Dhabi-owned bankExternal link to pay...

The bank said it was willing to intervene in the foreign exchange market “as necessary” to mitigate upward pressure on the franc. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer The Swiss National Bank has decided to stick to its expansionary monetary policy, a day after the US Federal Reserve announced it was tightening monetary policies amid rising inflation. On Thursday, the SNB announcedExternal link it was keeping the monetary policy rate at -0.75%. In doing so the bank wrote in a...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is doing its best to keep up with the fast-evolving world of cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance. Switzerland’s central bank has again showcased the capabilities of its fledgling digital franc – an example of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The SNB has revealed that last month it clubbed together with the Bank of France and mainstream financial companies to pull off a cross-border trade using CBDCs on a distributed ledger...

In less than a decade the surface area dedicated to growing sugar beets in Switzerland has dropped from 20,000 hectares to 16,500 hectares Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch Every year from October to December more than 1.5 million tonnes of sugar beets grown in Switzerland are harvested to supply the country’s sugar industry – an industry being kept alive by massive government subsidies. SWI swissinfo.ch reports from Aarberg, home to the country’s largest sugar factory....