Press Releases

KOF has collaborated with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper to survey economists on fundamental and current economic questions. The results show that they reject state intervention such as rent controls and trade tariffs. On the other hand, opinions are divided along political lines when it comes to questions about easing Switzerland’s debt brake or subsidising environmentally friendly technologies.

The decrease in the Global Barometers in January suggests a pullback after the rise recorded in the last quarter of 2024. With the decline, the Coincident Barometer is moving away from the 100-point mark. However, the Leading Barometer remains above 100 points, indicating a continued positive outlook for the performance of the world economy in the first half of 2025.

The KOF Economic Barometer decreases in December. After an increase in the previous month, it now falls slightly below its medium-term average. The outlook for the Swiss Economy has dampened.

Assessments of the outlook for the Swiss economy have deteriorated slightly compared with the autumn forecast. KOF is slightly revising downwards its forecasts. It expects real gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for sporting events to increase by 0.9 per cent in 2024. Sport-adjusted GDP will grow by 1.4 per cent in 2025 and by 1.7 per cent in 2026. The main reason for these downward revisions is the sluggish performance of the international environment – particularly in Germany and France.

The KOF MPC figure for 12 December 2024 is 0.14. At today’s meeting, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to lower the three key ECB interest rates.

Global interdependencies are gradually recovering, as the KOF Globalisation Index for 2022 shows. Globalisation is returning to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic level. Economic globalisation in particular has provided a boost here, while social and political globalisation continue to suffer from the after-effects of the pandemic. The most globalised country is the Netherlands, followed by Switzerland and Belgium.