Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by 0.9 per cent over the second quarter of 2010 in real terms.

GDP growth was primarily the product of domestic demand – higher rates of investment activity – but demand from exports softened over the year, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said in a statement on Thursday.

Compared with the same quarter in the previous year, which marked the lowest level of GDP during the 2009 recession, real GDP growth was 3.4 per cent.

Private consumption in the second quarter remained at the same level as in the previous year.

Fixed investments expanded by 2.1 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2010, whereby construction spending was slightly slower at 1.3 per cent than equipment and software investments which expanded by 2.8 per cent. Investments were particularly positive in the metal working and mechanical engineering industries.

The exports of goods and services grew by 1.7 per cent. After a dynamic first quarter in 2010, goods exports increased only slightly (0.1 per cent). Services exports, however, accelerated and expanded by 5.3 per cent on the previous quarter.

This expansion was merely the result of an extraordinary growth in the trade with raw materials, Seco said.

The import of goods and services recorded growth of 4.6 per cent. The increased import of goods (up four per cent) was to a large extent the result of the strong expansion in the import of jewellery, it added. After a significant decline in the previous quarter, service imports grew by 6.9 per cent.

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