2017

In November 2017, the KOF Business Situation Indicator for the Swiss private economy dropped slightly for the second time in a row. Although the business situation is still favourable, it does not look quite as magnificent as during the summer months. Nevertheless, all in all the KOF survey results indicate a consistently robust business situation.

With the Christmas business just around the corner, Swiss consumers appear to be quite optimistic – a fact that should be appreciated by domestic retailers. However, this year is likely to have been another dynamic one in terms of cross-border shopping. It remains to be seen how much money will roll in for domestic retailers and how much they will be forced to surrender to their competitors across the border.

Bringing a product from idea to market is a stony and sometimes expensive process. The classic approach is to keep everything under wraps so that no competitor knows what you are doing. However, this approach is not always the best one, as new research by Georg von Krogh, Torbjørn Netland and Martin Wörter shows.

A conventional currency functions as a ‘medium of exchange’, a ‘store of value’, and a ‘unit of account’. Blockchain based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin satisfy only the first two of those criteria. So far, the use of bitcoin has been limited to a medium of exchange, but that could change.

Boom in Chinese tourism. The country has become the most important market of origin for the international tourism sector in terms of spending by tourists. Chinese visitors are also becoming increasingly important for the Swiss tourist regions, a trend which is also expected to continue into the coming months, as is shown by the most recent KOF Tourism Forecast commissioned by the SECO.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has commissioned external studies to investigate the effects of the increase in the value of the Swiss franc on the structure of exports, employment, investment and R&D spending. These studies also include three KOF studies, which show how the increase in the value of the franc has impacted on the competitiveness of the economy as a whole, including employment, prices for industrial goods, investment, spending on research and development by exporters.