Tag Archives: Business

Hiking, and biking, were rare winners in the pandemic. Keystone / Arno Balzarini New data on Swiss travel habits during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic show fewer overnight stays, less air travel and a collapse in trips beyond the borders of Europe. In 2020 the Swiss resident population made a total of 15.1 million trips which included at least one night away from home, according to a report published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Wednesday....

The pandemic has created major challenges at ports delivering goods around the world. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved Swiss economic experts expect a significant economic slowdown as supply chain bottlenecks, inflation and pandemic restrictions persist in many parts of the world. On Thursday, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) announcedExternal link that the economic expert group has lowered the growth forecast for Switzerland...

The preference is for “flex crops” like sugarcane that have multiple uses, as well as the potential for mechanisation of cultivation. Keystone / Andre Penner Research by investigative non-profit Public Eye has revealed that trading companies with a Swiss presence – or their subsidiaries – own over 550 plantations covering over 2.7 million hectares. These companies buy and sell commodities like sugar, soy and palm oil from trading offices in Geneva or Zug and include...

The EU Commissioner for competition policy, Margrethe Vestager. Keystone / Olivier Hoslet The European Commission has ended an investigation of five banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse, who colluded in a foreign exchange spot trading cartel. The total fines announced on Thursday came to €344 million (CHF359 million), with British bank HSBC taking the biggest hit of €174 million. UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, escaped a potential fine of €94 million since it...

An average Swiss household spends more than 14% of its gross income on housing and energy. © Keystone/Christian Beutler The average private household in Switzerland spent about 31% of its income on taxes, social security and health insurance premiums in 2019. That’s 1% up on the previous year, slightly reducing the individual budget and the chances of setting money aside. Latest official figures show that the average gross monthly income was CHF9,582 ($10,301) up...

Fabio Canetg The Australian central bank is being attacked by the markets and is losing control over interest rates. Something similar happened to the Swiss National Bank in 2015 with the minimum exchange rate for the euro. But what is behind this? The government should be able to borrow cheaply. That is what the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) promised when the pandemic broke out. It fixed the interest rate on three-year government bonds at 0.1%. Economists call...

Idyllic: Crans-Montana Keystone / Laurent Gillieron During the pandemic, some skiers have been doing just that. But does the romantic vision tally with the reality? It was in May, while hiking along the forest trails and waterfalls of La Tièche, with views towards the snow-dusted peaks of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, that fitness coach Jessica Z Christensen decided to spend more time in the Swiss mountains. After a decade of being a digital nomad, the Italian and...

Audemars Piguet is one of four independent brands that dominate the global luxury watch market. Thomas Kern Driven by strong Chinese demand, Swiss watchmaking is recovering after suffering one of its biggest economic shocks in 2020. But the crisis has further widened the gap between the few brands that take the lion’s share of the profits and the rest of the industry. My specialty is telling stories, and decoding what happens in Switzerland and the world from...

Six out of ten women lawyers in Switzerland work part-time. Keystone / Anthony Anex Women make up half of the highly skilled workforce in Switzerland, but work fewer hours, according to a study published on Tuesday. One in three would like to work more, under certain conditions. Women often opt for part-time work, and the liberal professions are no exception, says the studyExternal link carried out by the Sotomo Institute for the Swiss Union of Liberal Professions...

US technology giant Google argued that it had the capabilities to offer the cloud data services to Switzerland. Keystone / Bernd Von Jutrczenka The Swiss federal authorities can proceed with awarding a cloud computing contract to five US and Chinese companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Alibaba, after Google dropped an appeal against the decision to leave it out of the project. “The appeal lodged within the framework of the procedure having been withdrawn, the...