Category Archive: 3) Swiss Markets and News
Switzerland: Man Convicted For “Liking” Apparently Slanderous Facebook Comments
In the United States, a crazed racist is currently facing murder charges for stabbing multiple men who attempted to stop him from harassing two teenage girls. In a court appearance, he justified his murder of two Americans, one a military veteran, by citing “free speech.”
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Sweeteners proposed for revised corporate tax reform
The government will consider a package of voter-friendly sweeteners, including extra child benefits, as it strives to breathe new life into controversial company tax reforms. The new proposals come less than four months after Swiss voters rejected a major overhaul of the corporation tax landscape.
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Switzerland remains competitive despite issues
The strong franc and corporate tax uncertainty have failed to dislodge Switzerland from second place in an annual ranking of the world’s most competitive economies. The alpine state was also judged by the Lausanne-based IMD business school to have the world’s eighth best digital capability. For the second year in a row, Switzerland was only outclassed by Hong Kong in the 2017 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbookexternal link, released on Wednesday.
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A modern-day school for witches
There are said to be around 1,000 modern-day ‘witches’ living in Switzerland. One of them is Calluna, whose real name is Jacqueline Schaller, from Kallnach, in canton Bern. Swiss Public Television, SRF visited her “school for witches”. (SRF, swissinfo.ch) — swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on …
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Mortgage reference rate falls opening way for Swiss rent cuts
Every three months the rate of interest used to set Swiss rents is reviewed. If it goes down some renters have the right to request a decrease in rent. This time it dropped 0.25% to 1.50%. The interest rate used to set the reference rate was the average rate on Swiss mortgages at 31 March 2017 of 1.61% which rounds to 1.50% under the rounding rules, which round to the nearest quarter of a percent.
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Swiss farmers reject palm oil cow supplements
The Swiss Farmers’ Association has called on members to stop feeding dairy cows supplements that contain palm oil. The revelation has embarrassed the organisation that has been fighting against palm oil imports from Asia.
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Swiss healthcare ranked third globally for preventing death
A study of data from 195 countries from 1990 to 2015 published recently in the medical journal The Lancet, ranks Switzerland’s healthcare system third. The analysis looked at mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care. It considered both healthcare access and quality and was designed with the aim of normalising for local environmental and behavioural risks.
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The Internet Helped Kill Inflation In America, Says Credit Suisse
Whether or not San Francisco Fed President John Williams is right about US inflation and employment being about as close to the central bank’s targets as investors have seen - as he told CNBC two days ago - is irrelevant: The central bank is going to raise interest rates two more times this year no matter what happens to consumer prices, says Credit Suisse Chief Investment Officer for Switzerland Burkhard Varnholt.
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Bernhardiner Nachwuchs
The Barry Foundation celebrated the arrival of two St Bernard litters at the end of March. The dogs were traditionally used to rescue people from avalanches in the mountains, but were later bred at the foundation in western-Switzerland which was set up to preserve the place of the dog in Swiss culture. (SRF, swissinfo.ch) At … Continue reading...
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Record research spending defies currency woes
Swiss companies invested record volumes in research and development (R&D) in 2015, despite the franc exploding in value at the start of that year. The private sector was responsible for most of the CHF22 billion ($22.6 billion) R&D spending in 2015, according to official figures released on Monday. This was an increase of 10.5% from the last time such spending was measured by the Federal Statistical Officeexternal link in 2012.
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Strong franc scares off investment in Switzerland
The strong franc continues to scare off foreign investors to Switzerland, while at the same time driving Swiss manufacturing abroad. These are the findings of the latest annual Ernst & Young foreign direct investment (FDI) survey released on Friday.
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Swiss farmers expect meagre fruit harvest after losses
An unusual end-of-April frost is expected to cost Swiss fruit producers some CHF100 million ($102 million) in damages and as much as three-quarters of their crop this year.
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