Consumers see inflation as stronger and expect it to increase in next 12 months
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss consumer confidence is rising, with the quarterly index of Seco, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showing a marked increase in two key areas. The survey carried out at the end of April shows that “consumer expectations regarding the development of the overall economic situation reached -2 points in April (compared with -29 in January). There was also an improvement in the expectations concerning unemployment (+49 in April com-pared with +71 in January),” according to a statement from Seco.
The two areas that remain virtually unchanged, however, are assessments of the future development of consumers’ personal financial situations (+0 in April compared with +1 point in January) and “the assessment of their future savings opportunities (+20 compared with +22 points in January)”.
A number of changes are taking place in the way the survey is carried out, starting with a change in the research institute doing the research, but it will also cover an additional two to three weeks and will include 1,200 rather than 1,100 households. A key change is that Italian speakers from Ticino are now being inclluded; in the past the surveys were run only in French- and German-speaking Switzerland.
