Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Have you started looking ahead to 2024? We have – today we dust down our crystal ball and have a glimpse at the economic outlook for next year. Tomorrow it’s politics.
In the news: A tax to help the environment, UBS leads the way in banking job cuts, and proposals to prevent another Credit Suisse debacle.
- The youth section of the Swiss Social Democrats (JUSO, pictured launching the initiative on a dry section of the River Emme in 2022)) say they have collected enough signatures for the “Initiative for a Future”. This calls for an inheritance tax of 50% from a tax-free amount of CHF50 million ($58.5 million) in favour of an ecological restructuring of the economy.
- Swiss bank UBS cut a particularly large number of jobs among global banks in 2023. The takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS has led to a reduction of at least 13,000 jobs at the combined bank, the Financial Times wrote. And further major rounds of redundancies are expected in the coming year.
- The Swiss government intends to submit proposals to parliament in the spring to ensure that a Credit Suisse-style bank bailout will no longer be necessary in future. “We must act – we have no other choice,” Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung today. “We must ensure that a major bank can go under without, in the worst case, dragging an entire country into the abyss.”
A tourism sector that dreams of being a safe haven, pharma giants on a diet and industrialists in the grip of an economic slowdown – SWI swissinfo.ch journalists select the major developments that await the Swiss economy in 2024.
The headline news is that the sluggish economy in the eurozone and interest rate rises in many countries will continue to have an impact on the Swiss economy next year. GDP growth is predicted to be 1.1%, down from 1.3% in 2023, the second year in a row that growth will be well below average. As a result of the more restrictive monetary policy pursued by the Swiss National Bank, inflation should continue to fall next year, dropping below 2%.
It’s sort of good news for the Swiss tourism industry: with the strength of the Swiss franc, inflation and reduced purchasing power, the overall situation for the sector is rather poor. But according to Simon Wiget, director of Verbier Tourism, Switzerland stands out from the crowd because it offers a haven of peace in the midst of a world in turmoil. “In today’s anxiety-filled environment, people want to be reassured. And Switzerland offers a lot of security,” he reckons.
Read the rest of our analysis and discover how Swiss pharma will be playing catch-up as obesity drugs steal the show, why the euphoria is set to end for Swiss watchmakers, and why the spectre of the Credit Suisse debacle will continue to haunt Switzerland.
Choosing presents at Christmas or for birthdays is no small feat even for those with the best intentions or a large wallet. Spare a thought, then, for world leaders under constant pressure to offer each other the perfect gift when they meet.
It’s impossible to know who among the staff of the Uzbek President, Islom Karimov, had a stroke of genius in 1993. On the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos that year, then-Swiss President Adolf Ogi received a gift from Karimov which, at first glance, looks traditional enough: it’s a large handwoven rug featuring flower and leaf patterns in a vibrant red complemented by rich earth tones. Only at its centre is a portrait of Ogi himself, dressed in a dark suit jacket and red tie to match the rest of the rug.
Gift exchanges are common when a Swiss president meets another world leader, says Susan Misicka, a spokesperson for the Federal Chancellery. Deliberations on this are taken seriously. Gifts presented by the Swiss side range in value from CHF50 ($60) to several thousand francs and must be of Swiss origin. “They typically represent Swiss excellence and/or precision,” says Misicka, who cites clocks, music boxes, Swiss Army knives, chocolate, wine, and even skis and artwork as examples.
To find out what Ogi made of the rug, check out this article and video by my colleagues Geraldine Wong Sak Hoi and Julie Hunt, who visited the “Aladdin’s Cave” in the Federal Art Collection in Bern where the temperature, humidity level and lighting are optimised to store the famous Uzbek rug and many other diplomatic gifts that Swiss cabinet ministers, ambassadors and other civil servants have received since the creation of the Confederation in 1848. I’ve visited the collection myself and it really is eye-opening.
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