Tag Archives: Swiss Markets and News

The canton wants the platform to place limits on its use to put the brakes on commercial operators © Mohamed Ahmed Soliman | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The 60 day limit was set by Geneva’s State Council. Antonio Hodgers, State councillor in charge of housing told Tribune de Genève that renting on the platform had become a real business for some and that this needs to be controlled. The canton wants to prevent...

Swiss pensioners who wish to rent or buy property in Portugal are exempt from income tax for a decade (Keystone) - Click to enlarge A proposal to tax at source the old-age pensions of Swiss retirees living abroad has been made in parliament. The aim is to prevent differential treatment of pensioners based on where they live. On Wednesday, Christian Democrat senator Peter Hegglin tabled an...

A recent survey calculates 60.1% of Switzerland’s population was middle class in 2015, a figure that has remained broadly stable since 1998, reaching its highest in 2009 (61.3%) and lowest in 2013 (56.8%). © Iakov Filimonov | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge But what is middle class in Switzerland? According to Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office, it is anyone living in a household with a gross income between 70%...

(Keystone) - Click to enlarge Johannes Rüegg-Stürm, the chairman of the board of directors of Switzerland’s third-largest bank has resigned from his position with immediate effect. The bank hopes turn a new page following the arrest and criminal proceedings against former CEO Pierin Vincenz. A statementexternal link released by the bank on Thursday, said the move was intended to “preserve the long-term credibility of...

Switzerland’s power grid is part of a large pool of ebbing and flowing electricity spanning 25 countries, known as the Continental European (EC) power grid. © Mauro77photo | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge Enough electricity must be fed into it to keep it at a stable frequency. The EC’s magic number is 50 Hz. Maintaining this requires a carefully coordinated trans-national balancing act. When electricity consumption...

Lukas Reimann, a parliamentarian and member of the Swiss Peoples Party (UDC/SVP), fought to have parliamentarians paid by health companies partially excluded from government commissions dealing with health issues. © Martin Šandera | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge He thinks vested interests are behind high health premiums and that cartels must be broken. According to him 23 out of 25 of the members on such health...

For the first time since 2009 the percentage of women in top management positions has decreased (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The percentage of women in top executive positions dropped slightly in Switzerland last year, a report has found. The annual survey by the Schilling human resource consultancyexternal link shows a 1% drop to 7% in 2017 compared with the previous year. In 2016, the share of women in...

Swiss butchers and supermarkets are selling less pork (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Less meat was sold in Switzerland in 2017 than the previous year, although the average Swiss still consumed a good 26 kilograms of meat over the year. Sales of domestic and imported meat fell by 0.7% to 221,468 tonnes, the Federal Office for Agricultureexternal link reported. Turnover also dropped by 0.7% to CHF4.64 billion...

The price and the VAT on a receipt in Zurich (Keystone) - Click to enlarge More than 84% of voters have renewed the government’s right to tax its citizens and companies for another 15 years. This is a unique feature of Switzerland’s political system of direct democracy and federalism. External Content Live results of March 04 2018 ballot: Licence fee for public broadcasters and Federal taxes 2021 Live...

Sergio Ermotti, CEO of UBS, as seen during a press conference earlier this year (Keystone) The chief executive of Switzerland’s largest bank UBS received CHF14.2 million ($14.92 million) in compensation for 2017, up from CHF13.7 million in 2016, UBS said on Friday. The announcement comes at a time when executive pay and bonuses are under increased scrutiny in Switzerland. In all, the bankexternal link’s 11-person...