Swiss consumer sentiment slumps amid Iran war

Swiss shoppers are less enthusiastic about spending Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

Consumer sentiment in Switzerland deteriorated significantly in March, falling to its lowest level since the beginning of 2024. The war with Iran is likely to have played a significant role.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The consumer sentiment index calculated by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) fell by 12.5 points to -42.9 points in March compared to February 2026. Compared to March of the previous year, the index declined by 8.1 points.

The sub-indices “Expected Economic Development,” “Expected Financial Situation,” and “Time for Major Purchases” were below their levels from March 2025. Meanwhile, the “Past Financial Situation” index remained virtually unchanged.

This brings the index to its lowest level since the beginning of 2024. The previous low was recorded in April 2025 at -42.4 points, shortly after United States president Donald Trump announced his first tariff hikes.

The consumer sentiment index is published monthly based on a survey conducted by SECO. The data from private households has been collected since 1972.

Adapted from German by AI/mga

How we work

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 [e-mail]