No. 141, June

The KOF Business Situation Indicator regained some ground in May after having crashed in the previous month: the indicator is rising very modestly (Graph G 10). Nevertheless, Swiss companies reckon that their current situation is significantly worse than it was during the 2009 financial crisis. Although the Swiss economy is still in recession, it is no longer in freefall.

How high is the ‘start-up rate’ in Switzerland compared with other countries? What is the main motive for setting up businesses in Switzerland? What competences are particularly relevant for start-ups and what factors encourage innovation performance? This article provides an overview of the most important findings of KOF’s research on business start-ups in Switzerland.

The business situation in the Swiss construction sector deteriorated sharply in April. Construction site closures in parts of Switzerland and hygiene regulations are delaying ongoing construction projects. KOF expects construction investment to decline by 2.0 per cent in real terms in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures being taken by the government to mitigate its health consequences are affecting many companies in Switzerland. In order to obtain a timely and comprehensive overview of this impact, Swiss companies’ websites are regularly checked for the use of relevant terms, and these findings are then broken down by company size, sector and location.

The KOF Investment Survey estimates the causal effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the investment activity of Swiss companies. According to this survey, Swiss companies have scaled back their plans to invest in equipment during the current year by 7.3 percentage points and have reduced their plans to invest in research and development by 14.9 percentage points. This has far-reaching consequences for the further course of the recession and the dynamics of the subsequent economic recovery.