Swiss interest rate cut to zero

2025-03-20

Parliament approves free trade agreement with India

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2025-03-18

The forced takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS prompted calls for tighter regulations.

Keystone / Michael Buholzer

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2025-03-18

Swiss economy to slow for two years

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2025-03-14

It is well known that the Swiss are overcharged for nearly everything. However, when products are being sent from a warehouse outside Switzerland one would expect the pre-tax price to be the same. This is rarely the case. The Romande Consumer Federation (FRC) has looked at a number of brands and found unjustifiable price differences as high as 93%.

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The FRC found an average price difference of +35% on clothing, sportswear, white goods, video games, furniture and consumer electronics when comparing identical products on different geographic versions of the same website.

H&M was ranked highest on the FRC’s naughty step with a +93% pre-VAT price difference over prices charged for the same products in France. These companies are artificially and

2025-03-07

Switzerland has strict zoning and construction laws. Federal land use planning laws (LAT) were first proposed in 1979. Since becoming law they have been through a number of modifications. A successful vote in 2013 tightened zoning rules further. This week, SRF reported on two houses that ended up on the demolition list.

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Despite municipal construction approval, certain homes are on the hit list. One in the canton of Ticino has already been demolished and another in Valais is headed for demolition.

The common thread in both of these cases is Switzerland’s strict Federal land use planning laws (LAT). These federal laws are applied by the cantons. But for decades, some municipalities, particularly in the cantons of Valais and Ticino, interpreted the

2025-03-07

Every three months the Federal Housing Office (FHO) adjusts the reference rate used to set rents in many rental contracts. If it goes down some renters have the right to request a decrease in rent. This time it dropped 0.25% to 1.50%.