Economic survey reveals discouraging outlook

A monthly survey of analysts has revealed that optimism over the country's economic outlook for the next six months has declined significantly.

The main indicator of economic expectations for the Switzerland Financial Market Test for October, carried out by Credit Suisse in cooperation with the Centre for European Economic Research, fell by 46.7 points to -91.1 points.

Some 93.3 per cent of respondents forecasted a gloomy economic picture.

Only 2.2 per cent of respondents said they expected the economic environment to improve within the next half-year.

Experts also felt negatively about the issue of short-term interest rates, which dropped considerably since the previous survey, as well as the labour market and inflation.

Over 82 per cent expected the Swiss unemployment rate to increase and 88.4 per cent of experts predicted lower profits for firms.

Inflation dropped to 2.9 per cent in August and 60 per cent of experts anticipated that it would continue to decrease. Some 13.3 per cent thought it would either rise or remain unchanged.

About half of analysts believe that the franc will continue to strengthen against the euro and nearly half predicted no change in the price of oil.