Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

This week, Easyjet announced its first ever annual loss of nearly £1.3 billion, its only loss in 25 years of operating. © Dennis Dolkens | Dreamstime.comAs Covid-19 grounded the airline’s planes, revenue disappeared. Revenues for the year to 30 September 2020, were reduced to £3 billion, only 47% of the £6.4 billion earned the year before. Costs were cut by £1.7 billion from £6.0 billion to £4.3 billion, a drop of 28%. However, this was not enough to cover the £3.4 billion fall in...

This week, Switzerland’s federal government decided to increase aid money to Covid hit businesses to CHF 1 billion. © Mcxas | Dreamstime.comBefore this announcement, Bern had already committed to providing CHF 400 million to struggling businesses. Funding for the first CHF 400 million is split 50-50 between cantonal and federal tax payers. The additional CHF 600 million will be funded 80% out of the federal tax pot and 20% out of cantonal tax revenues. This means in aggregate 68% of...

Deaths because of and with Covid19 Over the last 48 hours, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported a further 227 deaths among laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the death toll to 1,654 since summer and 3,385 since the beginning of the year. Total Covid-19 deaths in Switzerland since the beginning of the pandemic have now reached 3,696 of which 3,385 were laboratory confirmed infections. Hospitalisations The are currently 543 Covid-19...

Deaths because of and with Covid19 Over the last 72 hours, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported 198 deaths among laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the death toll to 1,427 since summer and 3,158 since the beginning of the year. Total Covid-19 deaths in Switzerland since the beginning of the pandemic have now reached 3,496 of which 3,158 were laboratory confirmed infections. Hospitalisations At 4,000, the number of hospitalised...

© Alessandro Melis | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s federal government has increased the amount of money earmarked for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines by CHF 100 million, bringing the total to CHF 400 million. The announcement came as preliminary trials of a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech found it to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Switzerland had already set aside money to buy 4.5 million...

Between the 3rd quarter 2019 and the 3rd quarter 2020, the number of people employed in Switzerland fell by 0.4% (–21 000). In addition, weekly hours worked per employee decreased by 2.7%. © Ginasanders | Dreamstime.comDuring the same period, the unemployment rate in Switzerland as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) increased from 4.6% to 5.3%. At the end of September 2020, 260,000 workers were without work, an increase of 35,000 compared to the same date in 2019....

Swiss cantons have very different tax bases, tax rates and costs. To even things up rich cantons are required to help those with less money via a system set up in 2008 known as the péréquation financière nationale (French) or Nationaler Finanzausgleich (German). Zug pays the most – © Avkost | Dreamstime.comThis week, the government decided on next year’s payments. The system relies on complicated formulae based on the tax and cost bases of each canton. In 2021, the top three payers...

Deaths because of and with Covid19 Over the 7 days to 13 November 2020, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported 553 deaths among laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the death toll to 1,229 since summer and 2,960 since the beginning of the year. The 553 reported deaths this week represent 19% of the total so far, making the last 7 days the deadliest 7-day period since the virus arrived in Switzerland. There are currently 3,945 Covid-19...

© Lauvergnat Laurent | Dreamstime.com Public worker absenteeism in Geneva costs at least CHF 285 million, according to Heidi.news, which calculated the sum based on information contained in an internal document. According to the news service the cost of absenteeism, which continues to rise, is equivalent to 11% of the 2.54 billion spent public sector workers’ salaries in 2019 and 3% of the canton’s total public sector spending that year. This is the first time that...

Public worker absenteeism in Geneva costs at least CHF 285 million, according to Heidi.news, which calculated the sum based on information contained in an internal document. © Lauvergnat Laurent | Dreamstime.comAccording to the news service the cost of absenteeism, which continues to rise, is equivalent to 11% of the 2.54 billion spent public sector workers’ salaries in 2019 and 3% of the canton’s total public sector spending that year. This is the first time that such information has...