No. 104, February

The KOF Business Situation Indicator for the Swiss private economy declined slightly at the start of 2017, resulting in the third monthly slowdown of the business situation in a row. Nevertheless, companies considered their situation to be more favourable in January 2017 than at the beginning of 2016. The latest slowdown shows, however, that the Swiss economy is still on difficult terrain.

Not least driven by the publication of the book “Capital” by Thomas Piketty, questions about inequality appear at the top of the list of economic issues to be addressed. One important aspect is the question about the relationship between financial development and income inequality. In a new paper, Jakob de Haan and Jan-Egbert Sturm show that financial development has increased income inequality.

Swiss companies are still among the most innovative enterprises in the world. However, the percentage of innovators has declined. Among the companies that generate innovations, the innovation expenditure to turnover ratio has nevertheless gone up. These are the results of the tenth Innovation Survey of the Swiss Economy for the years 2012 to 2014.

Swiss companies plan to increase their investment activities by around 4.5 per cent in 2017. The envisaged rise in capital investments and the substantial increase in planned growth investments indicate that the outlook among Swiss companies has become slightly more optimistic. These are the results of the KOF Investment Survey conducted in autumn 2016.