War threatens Swiss prosperity, warns top economist
The war in the Middle East is disrupting supply chains and price trends, threatening prosperity in Switzerland, says Jan-Egbert Sturm, director of the KOF economic research institute at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
“Our economic growth is better than many expected,” Sturm said in an interview with newspaper Blick, referring to the country’s 0.5% GDP growth in the first quarter of 2026. Despite all the crises, Switzerland is doing better than many other states, he added, before warning that “we should soon feel the consequences of the war more strongly”.
In his opinion, it may take some time before the consequences are felt even by local companies and orders collapse. The big question continues to be how long the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed. The interruption of oil and gas supplies hits Asia hardest, but with some delay Switzerland as well.
+ No recession in Switzerland despite oil crisis, says study
‘The longer the war lasts, the more we will feel the consequences,” Sturm continued. And it will be a long time before oil and gas production in the Middle East can return to full operation. The war therefore threatens prosperity here too, he said.
Rising petrol prices increase transport costs, which are passed on to consumers, which in turn increases the price of products, Sturm continued. This leads consumers to save money in other areas, which in turn reduces the demand for goods and services. In addition, there are secondary impact effects and a wage-price spiral, for example if workers demand higher wages.
Sturm expects inflation in Switzerland to rise to around 2% this year. This is still within the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) target range of 0%-2%.
Adapted from Italian by AI/ts
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.