Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

This week, the government of the canton of Geneva changed a law to require non residential buildings, with some exceptions, to switch off their lights at night between 1am and 6am. Thursday’s parliamentary vote in favour of the move is expected to cut the canton’s electricity consumption by at least 1%. During parts of winter, Switzerland imports electricity to keep its lights on. In November 2021, Switzerland’s president warned the nation to prepare for electricity...

Online harassment and cyberstalking are increasingly widespread in Switzerland, according to a recent survey. And the problem is no longer confined young people, reported RTS. © Katie Nesling | Dreamstime.comThe survey, which questioned 4,000 18-65 year olds in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland between 2 and 11 August 2021, found that the number of cases of harassment had increased by 10.6% since 2018. 39% of those surveyed said they had been harassed at least once....

Once a year it is possible to (easily) change your health insurance in Switzerland. To do so you must cancel your existing policy by 30 November, a date fast approaching. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.comDeadline for annual changes is 30 NovemberInsurers must tell their members what next year’s premiums will be by 31 October. Members then have until 30 November to cancel their insurance contract for the following year. All basic insurance contracts offer this possibility. This means if...

The amount of time spent working in Switzerland has been steadily declining since 2010, according to recent statistics from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). © Andrey Armyagov | Dreamstime.comIn 2020, an employed person worked an average of 1,495 hours a year in Switzerland, 7.2% or 13.8 days less than in 2010. To reveal the sharp drop in work hours in 2020 due to interruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic the data is split into the periods between 2010-2019 and 2019-2020....

In 2022, under the national financial equalisation mechanism, 6 cantons will transfer some of their tax revenue to Switzerland’s 20 other cantons. © Swisshippo | Dreamstime.comSwitzerland’s cantons have very different tax bases, costs and tax rates. Taxes in Switzerland are comprised of federal taxes, cantonal taxes and municipal taxes. Federal taxes are the same across all of Switzerland. However, cantonal and municipal taxes range significantly. Before 2008, all of the cantonal...

This week, the government of the canton of Geneva changed a law to require non residential buildings, with some exceptions, to switch off their lights at night between 1am and 6am. Thursday’s parliamentary vote in favour of the move is expected to cut the canton’s electricity consumption by at least 1%. During parts of winter, Switzerland imports electricity to keep its lights on. In November 2021, Switzerland’s president warned the nation to prepare for electricity shortages. Lighting...

Last weekend the management of one of Switzerland’s two largest supermarkets voted in favour of selling alcohol in its stores, reported the company. © Tea | Dreamstime.comCompany founder Gottlieb Duttweiler, who passed away in 1962, did not want the business to sell alcohol, something that was prevented by the cooperative’s constitution. Duttweiler did not want to fuel alcohol addiction with cut-price beer or other alcoholic beverages sold by the business he founded in 1925. However, on 7...

This week, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office published the latest cantonal GDP figures. Switzerland’s overall GDP growth in 2019 was 1.2%. However there were wide cantonal differences. © Eva Bocek | Dreamstime.comThe six fastest growing cantons in 2019 were Obwalden (+3.5%), Glarus (+3.2%), Zug (+2.7%), Basel-City (+2.6%), Luzern (+2.6%) and Valais (+2.5%). At the other end of the spectrum were the cantons of Basel-Landschaft (-0.1%), Nidwalden (-0.3%) and Zurich (-0.5%). To...

A group called Opération Libero and the Green party plan to come together to launch a referendum to require Switzerland’s federal government to sign new deal with the EU. © VanderWolfImages | Dreamstime.comAt a meeting on 26 May 2021, Switzerland’s Federal Council evaluated the results of Switzerland’s negotiations with the EU around the institutional framework agreement, an agreement aimed at replacing the country’s current patchwork of agreements with the bloc, and decided not to sign,...

At the end of October 2021, annual inflation in Switzerland reached 1.2% after rising 0.3% over the month, according to the Federal Statistical Office. This is the highest the annual rate has been since August 2018 when it reached 1.2%. © Cameracraft8 | Dreamstime.comThe price rises hitting Swiss pockets the hardest over the last 12 months include rent (+1.4%), heating (+12.0%) and transport (+7.3%). Rising fuel prices are behind the jumps in heating and transport costs. On the other...