Swiss Economicblogs.org
On 28 June 2023, Switzerland’s Federal Council approved a budget for 2024 with a deficit of CHF 6.7 billion. © Guenter Purin | Dreamstime.comSwitzerland’s constitution includes a section designed to constrain spending to prevent the government from living beyond its means. The debt brake, as it is known, allows a limited degree of annual overspending that is expected to be covered by future surpluses. However, there is a wrinkle. The debt brake refers to ordinary expenditure, which...
Read More »Swiss federal budget back to surplus in 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic plunged Switzerland’s budget into the red in 2020 and 2021. The federal government expects to return to normality with a balanced budget in 2022. © Asdf_1 | Dreamstime.comOn 30 June 2021, the Federal Council approved the outlines of a federal budget for 2022 and a financial plan for the period from 2023 to 2025. The balanced 2022 budget follows two years of pandemic-induced negative results. By the end of June 2021, the federal government had approved nearly...
Read More »Why Switzerland was ranked the most economically free nation in Europe
Switzerland was placed fourth globally in the 2016 Economic Freedom index published by the Heritage Foundation on Monday. One of only five countries declared economically free, Switzerland ranked top in Europe and was the only country in the top five not to lose any ground. In fact it improved by half a point. 178 countries were ranked and the average score was 60.7. The overall rankings can be seen here. Why did Switzerland score so well? With an overall score of 81 out of 100, Switzerland...
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