Tag Archives: Personal finance

Recently published data shows how prices compare across Europe. © Julija Sapic | Dreamstime.comThe data, collected by Eurostat, compares prices across a number of categories of spending in 2018. Average prices across the EU-28 are used as a base. Overall, residents of Switzerland spent 59% more on the same items than an average resident of the EU-28. Switzerland was 57% more expensive than Italy, 54% more expensive than Germany, 49% more expensive than France, 41% more expensive...

In 2017, an average Swiss resident visited a medical professional 4.32 times, according to data recently published by Eurostat. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.comOnly residents of Denmark (4.30), Sweden (2.77) and Cyprus (2.09) went to see a doctor less often. The average number of visits across those European countries with 2017 data was 6.84. Countries with the highest frequency were Hungary (10.9), Slovakia (10.9), Germany (9.9), Lithuania (9.5) and Liechtenstein (9.0)....

© Radomír Režný | Dreamstime.com Imagine borrowing CHF 105,500 but only having to repay CHF 100,000 in 20 years time, including interest. You’d get an interest free loan plus an extra CHF 5,500 to keep. This is what the Swiss federal government will do on 20 December 2019, except it will borrow CHF 196.6 million by issuing zero interest bonds at a price of 105.5%. The government will generate a CHF 10.25 million windfall. In addition, investors interested in this...

Imagine borrowing CHF 105,500 but only having to repay CHF 100,000 in 20 years time, including interest. You’d get an interest free loan plus an extra CHF 5,500 to keep. © Radomír Režný | Dreamstime.comThis is what the Swiss federal government will do on 20 December 2019, except it will borrow CHF 196.6 million by issuing zero interest bonds at a price of 105.5%. The government will generate a CHF 10.25 million windfall. In addition, investors interested in this issue of zero-interest...

Fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes are 17% cheaper – © Maksudkr | Dreamstime.com Swiss prices fell by 0.1% in November 2019, the sixth time in 12 months. But not everything is cheaper. Prices fell in December 2018 (-0.3%), January 2019 (-0.3), July (-0.5), September (-0.1), October (-0.2%) and November 2019 (-0.1). When combined with the low inflation experienced in the other 6 months the 12-month price drop is -0.1%. Not everything has gone down in price however....

© Tatsiana Hendzel | Dreamstime.com Swiss import duties on a number of industrial products might disappear if a plan put forward by Guy Parmelin, Switzerland’s economic’s minister, is approved by the National Council, Switzerland’s parliament. The changes are expected to benefit businesses and consumers by around CHF 860 million a year. On the other hand, the government will miss out on collecting roughly CHF 500 million a year of revenue from import duties. Products...

© Bigapplestock | Dreamstime.com At 30 September 2019, Switzerland had 79,000 job vacancies and 225,000 unemployed workers. This combination of unemployment and job vacancies can largely be explained by two things. The first is frictional unemployment, the period spent in between jobs. This typically increases when there is a lot of job changing. The second is a skills mismatch. Employers cannot find the skills they need among those seeking work. A recent report by...

Swiss prices fell by 0.1% in November 2019, the sixth time in 12 months. But not everything is cheaper. Fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes are 17% cheaper – © Maksudkr | Dreamstime.comPrices fell in December 2018 (-0.3%), January 2019 (-0.3), July (-0.5), September (-0.1), October (-0.2%) and November 2019 (-0.1). When combined with the low inflation experienced in the other 6 months the 12-month price drop is -0.1%. Not everything has gone down in price however. Swiss inflation...

Swiss import duties on a number of industrial products might disappear if a plan put forward by Guy Parmelin, Switzerland’s economic’s minister, is approved by the National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, according to RTS. © Tatsiana Hendzel | Dreamstime.comThe changes are expected to benefit businesses and consumers by around CHF 860 million a year. On the other hand, the government will miss out on collecting roughly CHF 500 million a year of revenue from import duties. Products...

At 30 September 2019, Switzerland had 79,000 job vacancies and 225,000 unemployed workers. © Bigapplestock | Dreamstime.comThis combination of unemployment and job vacancies can largely be explained by two things. The first is frictional unemployment, the period spent in between jobs. This typically increases when there is a lot of job changing. The second is a skills mismatch. Employers cannot find the skills they need among those seeking work. A recent report by the human resources...