Previous post Next post

Swiss cross-border shopping declines

via 20 Minutes.

Residents of German-speaking Switzerland appear to doing less shopping across the border, something that has also been observed in Geneva.

According to the newspaper the Handelszeitung, Swiss cross-border shopping peaked in 2015 and local customs posts have seen a decline in VAT and duty collected since March. At the border in Kreuzlingen, near Lake Constance, VAT and import duty collected was down 10%. At the Lörrach bei Riehen crossing near Basel, receipts were down by 31%.

The situation in Geneva is similar. SIX, the company that manages Maestro card payments, has noticed a similar decline in Swiss card payments across the border from Geneva, Ticino and the German town of Constance, across the border from Kreuzlingen. It is the first decline they have seen since 2012.

So why is this happening? Bertram Paganini, from the chamber of commerce Hochrhein-Bodensee in Constance thinks the trend has run out of steam, and German discounters, like Aldi and Lidl, operating in Switzerland, have helped to push down prices at Migros and Coop.

Judging by the comments on 20 Minutes, many readers are not convinced. One pointed out the huge price difference between French and Swiss beef, and another complained that Swiss chocolate is cheaper in France than in Switzerland.

Maestro Kreuzlingen Konstanz

 

 

More on this:
Read full 20 Minutes article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now

Full story here Are you the author?
About Investec
Investec
Investec is a distinctive Specialist Bank and Asset Manager. We provide a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in three principal markets, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia, as well as certain other geographies. Investec’s strategic goals are motivated by the desire to develop an efficient and integrated business on an international scale through the active pursuit of clearly established core competencies in the group’s principal business areas.
Previous post See more for 2) Swiss and European Macro Next post
Tags:

Permanent link to this article: https://snbchf.com/2016/10/investec-swiss-border-shopping/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.