Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

In Switzerland, how much you pay for compulsory health insurance depends on where you live. Premiums vary hugely by canton. For 2016, average monthly adult premiums in Basel City are CHF 545.60, Switzerland’s most expensive, compared to CHF 326.70, in lowest-cost Appenzell-Innerhoden. The difference between the two cantons is 40%. © Ginasanders | Dreamstime.com In addition to big differences between cantons, prices vary within some cantons, which are sliced up into zones. For example, Zurich...

20 Minutes. After reaching a historical low in the third quarter of 2016, rates started rising in the fourth quarter. Rate increases hit mortgage tenors of five and ten years. © Ashumskiy | Dreamstime.com Compared to Q3, fixed mortgage rates on loans of ten years went up an average 0.2% to 1.62% according to price comparison website Comparis.ch. Five year fixed rate loans went up from 1.08% to 1.14%. While loans with a term of one year remained stable at around 1%. Mortgage rates remain low,...

The train, which takes sightseers to the Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Alpes, carried 916,500 passengers in 2016, significantly fewer than the year before. In 2015, a record 1,007,000 made the journey. Despite the decline, 2016 was still the second best performance recorded. And, at the price of CHF 218.80 for a first class round trip, brought in a lot of money. The ski season saw a large drop in the number of passengers compared to last season. From the beginning of the season up until 2...

Investec Switzerland. In the last week of the year, the Swiss Market Index deepened its loss for the year as banks continued lower on low trading volumes. The SMI is set to end 2016 with an annual loss of 6.8% as banking and pharmaceutical giants pulled the index down in a year of turbulent trading. © Aprescindere | Dreamstime.com A volatile 2016 started with a brutal equity sell off as investors dumped global stocks on fears of an accelerating economic slowdown in China...

Investec Switzerland. Miners had been digging in one of Australia’s oldest collieries for almost a century until operations wound down a year ago, the victim of plunging global commodity prices. Now owner Glencore Plc is resuming output at the Queensland site, the latest sign of a profit bonanza bringing the world’s top metals and energy producers back from the brink. © Carol Buchanan | Dreamstime.com Everything from coal to iron ore to zinc soared in 2016, rebounding from...

Investec Switzerland. Ahead of the Christmas break, trading volumes were thin this week amid a lack of new market catalysts. Swiss and European equities were generally unchanged through the week, tracking global stock markets. Overall, sentiment appears to be positive as investors close their books for the year. © Gary718 | Dreamstime.com The European banking sector was this week’s main story with Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and the world’s oldest lender, Banca Monte dei...

Investec Switzerland. Switzerland handed out about $100 million in antitrust fines against seven U.S. and European banks for participating in cartels to manipulate widely used financial benchmarks. © Ron Sumners | Dreamstime.com JPMorgan Chase & Co. was fined 33.9 million francs ($33 million) for operating a cartel with Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc for more than a year, with the aim of influencing the Swiss franc Libor benchmark, which is tied to the London interbank...

If you haven’t had a chance to go Christmas shopping don’t despair, gifts destroy value. For example, someone on a diet is unlikely to place much value on a box of chocolates. The difference between what was paid for the chocolates and what the recipient would have paid represents destroyed value. They could have been left on the shelf for someone who would have fully valued them. Economists call this deadweight loss. © Kati1313 | Dreamstime.com In a book entitled Scroogenomics, Joel...

Investec Switzerland. The number of watches Switzerland exports is on track to reach the lowest level since 1984, when digital timepieces were in vogue and Swatch Group AG had just been formed in reaction to low-cost competition. Three decades later, difficult times are back: 11-month data is due Tuesday after the value of Switzerland’s watch exports dropped 11 percent in the first 10 months of the year. Source: Bloomberg While brands like Vacheron Constantin, Cartier and...

Investec Switzerland. After three years of uncertainty, Switzerland may just have solved its immigration dispute with the European Union. © Jorisvo | Dreamstime.com Lawmakers in Bern on Friday passed a bill designed to curb EU immigration by giving locals a head start on filling job vacancies. By supporting the measure — which sidesteps quotas — they aim to prevent a deeper dispute that could cost the country crucial trade deals. “In the short term, it means that the danger...