Category Archive: 3.) Investec

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Swiss employment reaches new record

2022-02-25

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2022-02-25

Data published this week by Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) show that the number of active workers in Switzerland rose to a record 5.239 million by the end of 2021. Photo by Lex Photography on Pexels.comThe number of people employed at the end of 2021 was 1.9% higher than at the end of 2020. 5.239 million represents around 73% of those 15 or older. Sharp rise in hotel and restaurant jobs The number of people...

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Switzerland remains in top 10 for lowest corruption

2022-01-30

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2022-01-30

Switzerland was ranked tenth in the latest 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) published by Transparency International this week.

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Price of wood pellets rises sharply in Switzerland

2022-01-29

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2022-01-29

The price of wood pellets in Switzerland is up 20% over the last 12 months, according to Patrick Schmutz, a wood pellet expert, reports RTS. According toSchmutz, the price rise is due to a cold 12 months, especially last spring, and the success of wood pellet heating. More and more pellet-based heating systems are being installed in Switzerland.

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Cost of Swiss postage hiked for first time in 18 years

2022-01-12

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2022-01-12

From 1 January 2022, the cost of posting a standard letter for next day delivery (A-class) is 10% higher and a B-class letter 6% higher. These price hikes are the first of their kind in 18 years, reported RTS.

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Switzerland’s fastest and slowest growth cantons

2021-11-15

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2021-11-15

This week, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office published the latest cantonal GDP figures. Switzerland’s overall GDP growth in 2019 was 1.2%. However there were wide cantonal differences.

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Switzerland remains top place for expats in 2021

2021-10-23

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2021-10-23

Switzerland is the highest rated country in the latest HSBC expat ranking published this week, a position held for the last three years.

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Geo-blocking set to be banned in Switzerland

2021-10-16

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2021-10-16

Geo-blocking is the practice of pushing online shoppers to a version of a website based on their geographic location. Many consumers would like to see the practice made illegal and Swiss laws look set to make it so, according to the NZZ am Sonntag, reported Le Matin.

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Nespresso capsules cannot be protected, says highest Swiss court

2021-09-26

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2021-09-26

The shape of the Nespresso coffee capsules is ordinary and unmemorable, according to Switzerland’s highest court, reported RTS.

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Vote to increase Swiss retirement age clears signature hurdle

2021-07-24

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2021-07-24

The youth chapter of the PLR (FDP) has successfully collected enough signatures for an initiative to raise the official retirement age in Switzerland to 66 years old, reported RTS. On 16 July 2021, initiative organisers submitted 145,000 voter signatures as part of the formal process of launching a referendum in Switzerland.

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How the Swiss Government gets Paid to Borrow

2021-07-17

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2021-07-17

Normally, those who borrow must pay out more money than they are lent in the form of interest and repayments. Currently, for the Swiss government it is the other way around. Lenders are paying the Swiss federal government to give it money.

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Swiss Unemployment back below 3% again

2021-07-09

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2021-07-09

On 8 July 2021, the Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) published unemployment figures for June 2021. By the end of June 2021, there were close to 132,000 people registered as unemployed across Switzerland, 11,000 fewer than at the end of May 2021, bringing Switzerland’s overall unemployment rate down from 3.1% to 2.8%.

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Swiss Roaming Charges to Fall on 1 July 2021 but the Roaming Minefield Remains

2021-07-02

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2021-07-02

On 1 July 2021, Switzerland’s revised telecommunications law came into effect. The new rules force mobile providers to make certain changes to deals they offer customers when roaming. Some of the resulting changes are positive, but not all. In addition, some operators have retained bundles that don’t comply with the new rules.

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Basel to become the fifth canton with a minimum wage

2021-06-17

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2021-06-17

Over the weekend, a majority of voters in the canton of Basel-City voted in favour of a minimum wage of CHF 21 (US$ 23) an hour. The move will make Basel-City the first German-speaking Swiss canton to adopt a minimum wage, following in the footsteps of Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura and Ticino.

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Nearly two thirds of Swiss support EU framework agreement, suggests poll

2021-05-15

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2021-05-15

Switzerland and the EU have been working at failing to agree on a new agreement on Switzerland’s relationship with the EU for sometime now. One point of negotiating leverage used by Switzerland is that Swiss voters would reject the deal proposed by the EU in a referendum. However, a recent poll suggests that might not be true.

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Real Swiss salaries up most in 5 years

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

On 30 April 2021, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office released salary data for 2020 which showed a 1.5% rise in real salaries compared to 2019. © Suwat Supachavinswad | Dreamstime.comIn 2020, a 0.8% rise in nominal salaries was boosted by inflation of -0.7% bringing the total increase in the real average Swiss salary to 1.5%. The last time salaries rose this much was in 2015 when the real increase was 1.5%. In both 2015 and 2020...

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Minimum wage hurting young people in Swiss canton

2021-04-16

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2021-04-16

Around three years ago, the Swiss canton of Jura introduced a minimum wage of CHF 20 an hour (US$ 21.65). Now there is political pressure relook at the move, according to RTS.

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Swiss bankruptcies fell by 7 percent in 2020

2021-04-11

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2021-04-11

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Swiss economy. GDP fell by 2.9% compared to 2019. However, despite the fall in economic output the number of bankruptcies fell by 6.7% compared to 2019.

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Farming lobby hurting Swiss chocolate sector, says industry association

2021-03-14

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2021-03-14

Swiss chocolate sales went into steep decline in 2020, according to ChocoSuisse, Switzerland’s chocolate industry association. The amount of chocolate produced in Switzerland in 2020 was 10% lower than in 2019 and sales revenue was down by 14.5%, a sharp drop.

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Swiss parliament demands cabinet reopen restaurants and theatres

2021-03-06

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2021-03-06

A recent parliamentary vote on whether to issue a formal request to the Federal Council, Switzerland’s executive, to reopen restaurants on 22 March 2021, found a majority of 97 to 90, according to Le Matin.

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Vaccine delays costing Switzerland up to 100 million francs a day

2021-02-06

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2021-02-06

A recent study by Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force calculates that vaccination delays are reducing Switzerland’s national output (GDP) by between CHF 50 – 100 million per day, according to RTS.

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