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A small section of La Pampa region in Peru being replanted after illegal miners deforested large swaths of the rainforest. Paula Dupraz-Dobias The boom in gold prices during the Covid-19 pandemic has kept Swiss refineries in business but has also boosted illegal mining, imperiling lives and the environment. Increased demand for the safe-haven metal has led gold prices to fluctuate in recent weeks around their highest levels since 2011. Mark Haefele, Chief...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.14% to 1.0789 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 4(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The dramatic sell-off of US shares yesterday is the main focus, capturing the limelight from other forces, including today’s US employment report.  It was the third-worst session for the S&P 500 since the March 23 bottom, and the other two did not see follow-through selling. ...

03.09.2020 – The consumer price index (CPI) remained stable in August 2020 compared with the previous month, reaching 101.2 points (December 2015 = 100). Inflation was –0.9% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The stability of the index compared with the previous month is the result of opposing trends that counterbalanced each other overall. Prices for clothing and footwear increased, as...

Swissport has been hit hard by the adverse impact of coronavirus on the aviation industry. Keystone / Stephanie Lecocq A consortium of investors has agreed a €800 million (CHF860 million) bailout of Chinese-owned airport services company Swissport. Revenues at the company have nosedived since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The consortium of US and British private equity firms and banks will buy out the majority stake currently held by Chinese conglomerate...

As the calendar turned to September, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidelines expanding and extending existing moratoriums previously put in place to stop evictions during the pandemic. Families affected by COVID either through the disease or as a result of job loss due to the coronavirus have been protected from landowner actions including eviction as a final means to reclaim rental properties from non-conforming tenants. There...

In the natural sciences, a laboratory experiment can isolate various elements and their movements. There is no equivalent in the discipline of economics. The employment of econometrics and econometric model building is an attempt to create a laboratory where controlled experiments can be conducted. Building an Economic Model The idea of having such a laboratory is very appealing to economists and politicians. Once the model is built and endorsed as a good...

London’s financial district. Britain and the EU are negotiating financial regulation post-Brexit, with Switzerland caught in the middle. Keystone / Hannah Mckay On a Monday morning, just over a year ago, investment firms across the EU found they were no longer allowed to trade on the Swiss stock exchange. It happened almost overnight — simply because Brussels refused to extend a regulatory “equivalence” deal with Switzerland, which gave each side free access to the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.46% to 1.068 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 13(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Equities began the week on a firm note in the Asia Pacific region. The Nikkei gained more than 2%, and the profit-taking seen in China ahead of the weekend was a one-day phenomenon. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.8%, and the Shenzhen Composite surged 3.5%. Taiwan and South Korea markets...

Keystone / Walter Bieri Major Swiss bank Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $15.5 million (CHF14.6 million) to settle a dispute with shareholders in the United States, according to court filings on Friday. The plaintiffs, led by four pension funds, accused Credit Suisse of defrauding shareholders about its risk appetite and management before taking $1 billion of writedowns on souring debt. The bank had boasted at the time of “comprehensive” risk controls and “binding”...

© Yulan | Dreamstime.com In the seven days to 10 July 2020, the reported number of new SARS-CoV-2 infections recorded in Switzerland was 589, a similar number to the week before, when 615 new cases were recorded. Over the weeks prior to this there were 251 and 172 new cases, according to worldinfometer.com. Much of the recent rise in infections is due to clusters of infections found among people going to nightclubs and bars. Late last week Switzerland’s Covid-19...