Category Archive: 3.) Investec

Inflation outstrips Swiss salary increases

The latest figures show that Swiss salaries have not kept up with inflation. An average Swiss salary rose 0.4% in 2017, compared to inflation of 0.5%. This left the average salary earner 0.1% worse off in real terms over the year.

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Climate Change Contributes to Surprise Fall in Swiss GDP

Third quarter Swiss GDP figures released yesterday show Switzerland’s economy shrank compared to the quarter before. GDP for the quarter to September was down by 0.2% compared to the quarter before, ending an 18-month run of quarterly growth.

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Swiss gender pay gap compared to rest of Europe

A recently published study ranks Switzerland 10th on gender pay gap. Switzerland’s gap of 17% is bigger than Italy’s (5.3%), Luxembourg’s (5.5%), Belgium’s (6.1%), Sweden’s (13.3%), Spain’s (14.2%), Denmark’s (15%), France’s (15.2%) or the Netherlands’ (15.6%), but lower than Finland’s (17.4%), Portugal’s (17.5%), Austria’s (20.1%), the UK’s (21%) or Germany’s (21.5%).

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Switzerland’s electronic motorway vignette to be optional

This week, Switzerland’s Federal Council decided the planned electronic motorway vignette will be optional. Drivers will be able to choose. Anyone wanting to drive on Switzerland’s motorway network must first buy a vignette, a road tax sticker introduced in 1985, which must be displayed on the windscreen. It currently costs CHF 40.

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Swiss Unemployment Benefits Cut for a one-day filing delay

Switzerland’s unemployment benefits might be generous but they are strictly policed, as one recipient recently discovered. For a period of up to approximately two years after losing a job, most workers in Switzerland receive 70% of their former salary up to a maximum of CHF 88,200 a year – the amount paid varies depending on circumstances1.

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Minimum return on Swiss pensions unchanged

A government commission looking at the rate, called for a reduction to 0.75%, while unions demanded a rise to 1.25%. In the end the Federal Council decided to take the middle road and leave the rate at 1% for 2019. The rate is the minimum pension funds must apply to employment related 2nd pillar pension assets in 2019.

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Switzerland’s rising rate of farm suicide

The high and rising suicide rate among Switzerland’s male farmers stands in contrast to the declining rate among rural men working in other professions, according to a new study by the University of Bern published by the newspaper SonntagsZeitung. The rate among rural men working outside farming is 33 per 100,000, compared to 38 per 100,000 among farmers, a rate that has risen since 2003.

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New Swiss broadcasting fee starts next year

After a referendum in March 2018 threatened to axe Switzerland’s costly broadcasting fee, the government put forward a counter proposal, which was adopted when 71.6% of voters voted to keep the fee. On 1 January 2019, the lower fee contained in the government’s plan will come into force. Next year, instead of CHF 451, each household will need to cough up CHF 365.

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Geneva Aims for a New Company Tax Rate of 13.79 percent

According to bilan.ch, Geneva’s Council of State, or executive, has put forward a proposed corporate tax rate of 13.79% as part of its tax reform project, work triggered by international pressure on Switzerland and its cantons to remove preferential tax treatment for certain international companies.

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How to Run a Swiss Business – a Guide to 7 Essential Tasks

Businesses that employ people, including independents, must pay social insurance taxes. These are administered by compensation funds and rates vary slightly by fund and canton, but are around 15% of salaries. The rate for independents is lower.

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Investigating suspected welfare cheats – where to draw the line

On 25 November 2018, Swiss will vote on whether to accept laws allowing detectives to uncover welfare fraud. Currently, there is nothing specific in Swiss law covering the practice. In the past, investigators have been used to gather evidence on disability and accident beneficiaries. Between 2009 and 2016, detectives were used on around 220 investigations a year, of which around two thirds were found guilty of fraud.

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Switzerland expecting a 2.5 billion franc federal surplus for 2018

The latest figures forecast Switzerland’s federal spending for 2018 will be CHF 0.9 billion less than expected. This and higher than expected receipts of CHF 1.3 billion add up to an extra CHF 2.2 billion on top of an original budget surplus of CHF 0.3 billion, bringing the total forecast federal surplus to CHF 2.5 billion.

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Self-Employment declining in Switzerland

The percentage of Switzerland’s workers working for themselves has been slowly declining. In 2010, 13.7% of workers were self-employed. By 2017, the figure was 12.8% – self-employed includes those working as independents and those working for companies they own.

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Swiss still World’s Richest

According to the annual wealth report produced by Credit Suisse, Switzerland leads on wealth per adult with US$ 530,240, comfortably ahead of second-placed Australia where the figure is US$ 411,060. The US is third with US$ 403,060.

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Swiss Rail plans to test free WiFi on trains

Swiss Rail announced on Thursday that it would test free WiFi, named FreeSurf, on certain routes next year with a plan to extend the offer to all major routes from 2020, according to RTS. Train passengers benefiting from the tests in 2019 will be those travelling on InterCity trains between Lausanne and St. Gallen, Geneva and Zurich, and Bienne and Basel.

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Swiss arms exports rose almost 18percent in 2018

Switzerland exported close to 18% more arms over the first nine months of 2018 than it did in the first nine months of 2017, according to figures published by State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). According to the numbers, in the nine months to 30 September 2018, Swiss companies exported close to CHF 300 million of arms, nearly CHF 45 million or 17.6% more than over the same period in 2017.

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Swiss Divorce Rates Continue to Climb

By 2017, 40.5% of those married in 1987 were divorced, compared to 33.2% of those married in 1977 and 24.7% of those married in 1967. Divorce in Switzerland starts early. 9.4% of those married in 1987 were divorced after five years, as were 8.1% of those married in 1977 and 4.8% of those who tied the knot in 1967.

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Swiss Health Insurance Costs to Rise Further in 2019

More bad news for Swiss household budgets was released today for residents of all but three Swiss cantons. Health insurance premiums in 2019 will be on average 1.2% higher than in 2018 across Switzerland as a whole. However, within this figure there are significant cantonal variations.

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Swiss Housing – the hardest and easiest places to find a home

Recent government figures show a 13% rise in the number of vacant homes over the 12 months to June 2018. The number has more than doubled since 2009 when there were close to 35,000 vacant dwellings. By 1 June 2018, there were more than 72,000, a vacancy rate of 1.62%.

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Some Swiss Rail ticket machines set to disappear

Ticket machines once replaced many of the people selling ticket from counters. Now the internet and mobile phones threatens ticket machines. As more and more people use dash past ticket machines with an electronic train ticket in their pocket, Swiss Rail is looking at phasing out some machines according to various newspapers including 20 Minutes.

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