No. 116, March

In February 2018, the KOF Business Situation Indicator for the Swiss private economy continued to rise (see graph G 6). With one single exception, the business situation has thus been improving from month to month since January 2017. The Swiss economy is visibly gaining strength.

Last year, export companies managed to emulate the export figures of the period before 2008. Finally, foreign trade appears to have recovered from the recession and the Swiss franc shock.

The second of three articles on Eurozone debt is dedicated to the financial sector. During the crisis years, many financial firms were criticised, inter alia, for their dependency on public support measures. Since then, a few changes have been introduced in the currency union’s institutional regulations, and systemic risks have been reduced in many countries, albeit not in all of them.

Following the last Bulletin’s article on the skills employers look for in their staff, our second article on the level of digitalisation in Switzerland focuses on possible digitalisation objectives pursued by Swiss companies. It was found that companies specifically hope to raise efficiency.