January

Companies in Switzerland plan to increase their investment activities by some eight percent in 2018. Specifically, they want to increase not only their capital investments, but their expansion investments as well. This trend reflects the current health of the Swiss economy. These findings and more are the results of the KOF’s latest investment survey.

In January, the KOF Economic Barometer does not continue its upward tendency, which started in September 2017, but has declined. However, despite the decline, the indicator remains well above its long-term average. It still indicates a more dynamic economic development than in mid-2017. The recovery of the Swiss economy is thus likely to continue, albeit with slightly less momentum than indicated in the past few months.

The KOF MPC figure for 25 January 2018 is 0.33. The ECB communicated strengthened confidence that inflation rates will converge towards the ECB’s inflation aim.

The level of globalisation fell slightly in 2015. Overall, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden were the most highly globalised countries worldwide. The current KOF Globalisation Index reflects economic, social and political globalisation up to and including 2015.

The economy in the euro area grows strongly. The ifo Institute (Munich), ISTAT (Rome) and KOF (Zurich) expect to see respective growth rates of 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent in the first and second quarters of 2018.