KOF Business Situation: Indicator Down Slightly

September saw heterogeneous trends in the different sectors (see T 1). The manufacturing industry recorded the first decline in the Business Situation Indicator in three months, and the indicator also dropped slightly month-on-month in the retail trade. By contrast, the business situation improved marginally in the construction-related building and project engineering industries. A somewhat bigger rise in the Business Situation Indicator was reported by the financial and insurance providers. Wholesalers, the hotel and catering companies and the other service providers were last surveyed in July. At the time, the business situation of the wholesalers and the hotel and catering companies continued to improve while the other service providers reported a very slight slowdown.  

The major FSO regions also recorded heterogeneous trends in September, although the changes were of a minor nature in the majority of the regions (see G 14). In Central Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, the Zurich region, Espace Mittelland and North-West Switzerland the business situation remained more or less as favourable as in the preceding month. By contrast, opposing trends were recorded in the Lake Geneva region and Ticino. While the Business Situation Indicator took a step up in the Lake Geneva region, it dropped further below the general average in Ticino.  

Explanation of graphs

Graph G 4 presents the KOF business situation across all sectors covered by the survey. The business situation in sectors which are surveyed on a quarterly basis is kept constant during the intervening months.

Graph G 5 presents the business situation in the main regions according to the Federal Statistics Office (FSO). The regions are coloured according to business situation. The arrows in the regions indicate the change in the business situation compared to the previous month. An upward-point-ing arrow, for instance, indicates that the situation has improved over the previous month.

The KOF business situation is based on over 4,500 reports by Swiss companies. Every month, businesses are sur-veyed in the following sectors: industry, retail trade, con-struction and project engineering as well as financial and insurance services. Businesses in the hotel and catering sector, wholesalers and the other service providers are surveyed in the first month of every quarter. Among other questions, the businesses are asked to assess their cur-rent business situation. They may rate their situation as ‘good’, ‘satisfactory’ or ‘bad’. The balance of the current business situation is the percentage difference between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ responses.