Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

During 2020, average annual inflation was –0.7%, according to Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO). © Dmitri Maruta | Dreamstime.comIn December 2020, Switzerland’s consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.1% compared with November 2020. Compared to December 2019, prices in December 2020 were 0.8% lower. Annual inflation reached -0.7% across the full year. The main drivers of a falling CPI were lower travel prices and fuel costs. The price declines on these items were more...

Tension between Switzerland’s scientists and politicians is rising, according to RTS. Bern_© Petr Pohudka _ Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge On Saturday, Christian Althaus, an epidemiologist working for the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force, Switzerland’s scientific Covid advisory team, announced his resignation and voiced his frustration on Twitter. “One of the reasons why I left the scientific task force this week. Politicians must finally learn to face...

Recent research based on information from 3,762 Long Covid sufferers shows most still have symptoms after 7 months. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The study uses patient-driven research and is based on a survey created by a team of patients with COVID-19 who are members of the Body Politic online COVID-19 support group. The group conducted its first survey in April 2020 and issued a subsequent report in May 2020. Participants were not randomly...

© Pattanaphong Khuankaew | Dreamstime.com On 12 January 2021, Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for the authorisation and supervision of pharmaceutical products, approved a second vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus for the Swiss market. The vaccine from Moderna, of which the federal government has ordered around 7.5 million doses, has been approved for adults from age 18. Over the coming days a delivery of 200,000 doses will be made to Switzerland’s military, which...

The number of Covid cases went down significantly in Switzerland during spring as a result of schools closing, according to a study by ETH Zurich, reported RTS. School closed ©Andrey Zhuravlev -Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge Researchers at the university analysed anonymised mobile phone data of 1.5 billion movements of the Swiss population between 10 February and 26 April 2020. They used this data to calculate how much certain measures reduced mobility and...

Today, figures on Swiss unemployment at the end of 2020 were published. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.comAt the end of December 2020, there were 163,545 people registered as unemployed in Switzerland, a figure 39.5% higher than at the end of 2019. At 31 December 2020, the number of job seekers was 260,318, a number 34.9% above the same figure at the end of 2019. The last time the number of job seekers was close to this high in Switzerland was at the end of February 1997, when it...

© Bogdan Lazar | Dreamstime.com The pandemic had a significant impact on Swiss real estate prices in 2020, according to industry experts. Contrary to initial fears that property prices would fall, prices have risen over the period. Over the year, the offer prices of stand alone houses rose by 5.6% while apartment prices jumped by 5.5% across Switzerland as a whole, according to the Swiss Real Estate Offer Index compiled by ImmoScout24. 2020 has shown once more that...

The pandemic had a significant impact on Swiss real estate prices in 2020, according to industry experts. © Bogdan Lazar | Dreamstime.comContrary to initial fears that property prices would fall, prices have risen over the period. Over the year, the offer prices of stand alone houses rose by 5.6% while apartment prices jumped by 5.5% across Switzerland as a whole, according to the Swiss Real Estate Offer Index compiled by ImmoScout24. 2020 has shown once more that safe assets rise in...

The fast spreading strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus discovered in the UK has now been detected in seven Swiss cantons, according to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), reported RTS. So far 28 people in Switzerland have tested positive for the new UK strain, said Virginie Masserey of the FOPH. The strain has been detected in Vaud, Geneva, Valais, Bern, Zurich, St-Gallen and another canton. Some of those infected had travelled from the UK or been in contact with...

Despite the economic impacts of the coronavirus, significantly fewer Swiss companies went bankrupt in 2020 than the year before, according to the business data company Bisnode. © Sylvain Robin | Dreamstime.comDuring 2020, 3,811 Swiss companies filed for bankruptcy, 19% fewer than in 2019. Sectors that experienced the greatest fall in bankruptcies include artisans (-174 bankruptcies), hotels and restaurants (-124), retailers (-68) and wholesalers (-66). The slowdown in company failures...