Swiss economy set to recover

Private consumer spending will remain a main generator of the economy Keystone

The Swiss economy is expected to recover in the second half of 2002, with consumer spending and corporate investment remaining the main economic generators.

According to a forecast by Basel Economic Ltd (BAK), an independent economic research institute, the economy is set to pick up again half way through the year.

The BAK has forecast the real gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 1.3 per cent in 2002 compared with 1.5 per cent in 2002, after revising their prediction by 0.5 percentage points in December last year.

As the international economic situation has not deteriorated since December last year and no economic indicators are available for the fourth quarter of 2001, researchers said they would hold on to their revised forecast.

Long-term forecast

The long-term forecast for the Swiss economy looks positive and BAK researchers expect a GDP growth of 2.5 per cent for 2003. This figure mainly relies on a generell recovery of the world economy.

Apart from private consumer spending, corporate investment and exports, which are likely to remain the strongest contributors to the economy, the pharmaceutical and financial industries are set to grow in the second half of this year.

However, on Thursday economic researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich said the Swiss economy would hit rock bottom in the first quarter of the year.

In its quarterly industrial survey, the Institute also noted that companies were less pessimistic than in the October survey, which came in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States.

swissinfo with agencies