The Swiss economy has passed its peak but it should remain on a solid footing until the middle of the year, according to Switzerland's largest bank, UBS.

Growing orders in Swiss industrial companies, order backlogs along with rising production and employment were given on Thursday as reasons for the bank's assessment.

In its latest survey of about 400 companies, there was a feeling that the pace of growth was likely to decrease to a certain extent, with prices on the rise.

The bank found that order books grew in all sectors in the fourth quarter of 2007, with the watchmaking sector, in particular enjoying an "excellent" quarter.

Among the branches polled by UBS, watches had the strongest earnings and the highest proportion of companies with growing exports and increased staff.

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported on Tuesday that total exports for 2007 reached a record of almost SFr16 billion ($14.8 billion), growing 16.2 per cent compared with the previous year.

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