Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Wherever in the world you’re reading this, you’ll be glad to know that today you were the subject of annual statistics:
The yearly Swiss Abroad numbers offer a range of fun facts: for example, while France is the biggest single home of Swiss expats (209,300), five nations – including Turkmenistan and North Korea – boast no (registered) Swiss at all, watson.ch revealsExternal link. And while Portugal is not the home of a huge amount of Swiss émigrés overall (6,900), it saw a significant increase last year of almost 14%.
For more on the stats see here; in the meantime, wherever you are, have a good Easter. Our briefing returns on Tuesday.
In the news: high risk and high salaries at UBS.
- Switzerland needs “strong financial sector reforms” after the state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today. The IMF notably raised concerns about the risk posed by a new enlarged UBS to the Swiss economy.
- Meanwhile UBS released its annual stats today: at $27.8 billion (CHF24.34 billion), its operating profits were slightly lower than the $29 billion previously announced. The bank also revealed that its new CEO Sergio Ermotti earned CHF14.4 million between April and December last year.
- Government ministers will not enjoy a free annual pass to use the country’s network of cable cars as of 2025, they announced yesterday. This perk, which had been offered free of charge by the Swiss cable car association until last year, was seen as possibly violating a ban on accepting gifts and benefits.
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Heading south to the rain: Gotthard traffic jams
The extended Easter weekend is here, which means long traffic jams and short tempers at the Gotthard tunnel as holidaymakers flock south to the palm trees and (usually) balmy climes of Ticino. Tailbacks are an annual inevitability since the road tunnel opened in 1980, with the record of 25km set at Easter 1998; the jams have also become a source of popular fun, and the normally strait-laced Neue Zürcher Zeitung this year even ran an 18-question Gotthard quizExternal link to “ease the boredom” for car-bound travellers.
And with this year not likely to be different, despite an abysmal weather forecast for the south, SWI swissinfo.ch has also joined the party: the latest instalment of our weekly “Dialogue” series asks the question of how the traffic jam situation can be improved. With tolls? Or rather with innovative “slot systems”, whereby drivers reserve a time to drive through the tunnel? Should the motorways be made bigger? Or should people just go somewhere else (or stay at home) at Easter?
Read more about the traffic chaos in Switzerland and have your say here.
Chocolate: cocoa shortfalls cause pricing swings.
Aside from traffic jams and the crucifixion of Christ, Easter of course also means chocolate. This year, however, sugary rabbits might be more expensive than you remember. After poor harvests in some parts of the world led to big cocoa shortfalls, the price of cocoa on the futures market surged to a record high of $10,080 a tonne this week, more than double the long-term average. Much of this was due to the problems in cocoa-producing giants Ghana and Ivory Coast – together responsible for 60% of global production.
Who’s winning and losing from the fluctuations? As SRF reports todayExternal link, some producers in Latin America are reaping profits from the high prices, while in other places, including Ghana and Ivory Coast, the higher prices are wiped out by the bad harvest in any case. And as SWI swissinfo.ch reported yesterday, consumers are also facing a mixed picture: while some Swiss manufacturers such as Lindt & Sprüngli have raised prices, others such as Nestlé have not – yet. If your chocolate Easter egg isn’t exorbitantly expensive this year, your bag of Halloween goodies in October might be.
More of our reporting on the cocoa industry in West Africa available here.
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