Business Situation on an Upward Trend

In March, the more favourable business situation was felt broadly throughout the sectors surveyed (see T 1). In the manufacturing sector, the construction-related sectors of construction and project engineering and in the financial and insurance sector the business situation improved significantly. The situation is also somewhat better in the retail sector, although here the indicator improved only marginally. It is therefore still not possible to discern a clearly improving trend for retailers. Wholesalers, the hotel and catering sector and other service providers were most recently questioned in January. At that time, the situation had brightened up for other service providers, whilst it had barely changed in the hotel and catering sector. By contrast, wholesalers were more likely to report an unfavourable business situation.

The improvement is broad also when considered from a regional perspective (see G 7). Whilst the business situation in the Lake Geneva area remained unchanged in March compared to the previous month, in all other Federal Statistics Office (FSO) major regions the situation improved. This was particularly clear even in Ticino, which is the worst performing area. An improvement was also recognisable in Central Switzerland, in the Zurich Region, in North West Switzerland, in Eastern Switzerland and in Espace Mittelland.

Explanation:

Graph G 6 shows the KOF business situation for all sectors of the economy covered by the survey. For sectors of the economy that are only surveyed quarterly, the business situation is maintained at the same level during the intervening months.

Graph G 7 reports the business situation in the major regions used by the Federal Statistics Office. The regions are coloured differently depending on the business situation. The arrows within the regions indicate the change in the business situation compared to the previous month. An arrow pointing upwards means that the situation has improved compared to the previous month.

The KOF business situation is based on more than 4,500 reports from businesses in Switzerland. Each month, businesses from the sectors of industry, retail, construction, project design and the financial and insurance services sector are surveyed. Businesses from the hotel and catering sector, wholesalers and other service providers are questioned quarterly in the first month of each quarter. Businesses are requested amongst other things to assess their current business situation. They may assess their situation as “good”, “satisfactory” or “bad”. The balance of the current business situation is the percentage difference between the answers "good" and "bad".