NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – Freight carried by road and rail increased by 2 percent in 2010, showing some recovery after a 9 percent drop due to the faltering economy in 2009.
The new figures are the most recent annual ones for the industry, published by the Swiss Statistical Office in Neuchatel.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Statistical Offices new figures for average earnings in Switzerland show women making barely any progress in catching up with men for equal pay. The average salary in 2010 was CHF5,979, but the spread was large: women made on average CHF5221 and men CHF6,397.
Differences are explained to some extent by different qualification levels and years of service, but women account for the vast majority of fulltime workers who earn less than CHF4,000 a month, in part because 66 percent of women work either in retail sales or the hotel and restaurant industry, in jobs with low skills required.
10% of workers, senior managers, earn CHF22,755/month
Nearly 11 percent of workers make less than CHF4,000 a month, while 10 percent, top-level managers, make more than CHF22,755 a month.
The new figures show that the most qualified workers saw their salaries increase by 12.3 percent during the past decade, 2000-2010, while the least qualified workers saw their pay go up by 9 percent.
Management paychecks vary enormously depending on the industry: CHF14,919 in insurance, CHF16,724 in banking, CHF17,156 in pharmaceuticals, CHF22,000 in the tobacco industry. The same level of qualification pays on average CHF10,324 in the machine industry, CHF9,750 in healthcare and CHF8,138 in construction.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s 3,100 pension plans, of which 90 are public, were in slightly better shape at the end of 2010 than a year earlier, but 10.5 percent of them are not fully covered, and that figure is likely to rise for 2011. The Swiss surveillance body for pensions and foundations says, in its annual review, that 12 percent of pension funds were not fully covered in 2009, so while last year showed an improvement, stock market dips in 2011 will be behind more pension plans failing to meet their objectives this year.
In 2.25 percent of cases coverage in 2010 fell below 90 percent.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss National Bank 3 October published a table of the path the Swiss franc has taken against several key currencies since July 2010, showing clearly its dramatic rise. Against the euro, the rate has shifted from CHF1.3471 to CHF1.20 in 15 months and against sterling from CHF1.6111 to CHF1.3768. The dollar rate has moved from CHF1.0549 to CHF0.8723.
Young Swiss residents: not as likely to live to a ripe old age as their women friends
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss resident population in 2010 reached 7,866,500, an increase of 80,700, according to preliminary figures published by the Swiss Statistical Office in Neuchatel 28 April.
The 1 percent annual growth was comparable to the previous year’s. It includes the Swiss population as well as all resident foreigners except those with short-term permits, 56,600 and people seeking asylum, 5,600 persons.
“This statistic, greatly improved in quality, is part of the new, register-based population census system and provides more precise details than the previous Annual Population Statistics,” notes the SSO.
The federal government announced in December 2010 that it is moving to an annual census and will rely far more heavily than in the past on communal and cantonal population registers, which have been harmonizing the data they gather.
Switzerland now has 1,300 people over the age of 100 and figures show that this population has doubled every 10 years since 1950. The longer lifespan of women is clearly evident here, with women accounting for 1,100 of the people over age 100.
Number of foreigners continues to climb
The number of foreigners living permanently in Switzerland rose to 1,766,400 in 2010, an increase of 52,400, to comprise 22.5 percent of the population.
The percentage at the end of 2009 was 22 percent, but the increase is due in part to the way in which data is produced under the new statistics/census system, and to changing notions of population.
More people over 65 than under 20
The population under age 20 comprises 20.8 percent of the total and those age 65 or over, 1.3 million persons, are 16.9 percent. People of working age account for 62.2 percent of the Swiss population.
Boys outnumber girls slightly under age 20 but the male population declines gradually until the number of men and women is the same, in the 55-59 age group. Women then steadily outnumber men in a growing proportion: the ages 84-89 group has twice as many women as men.
The census included the following groups:
- Swiss whose permanent residence is Switzerland
- Foreigners with residence permits of at least 12 months (B, C and Foreign Affairs Department permits: international organization workers, diplomats and members of their families)
- Foreigners with a short-term residence permit (L) for a cumulative stay of at least 12 months
- asylum-seekers (F and N permits) whose total length of stay in Switzerland is at least 12 months.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Barely a whiff of the scandal has reached Switzerland, but it’s top of the news in India this week, and UK media have been following it with interest: the former head of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (CWG) in October 2010, Suresh Kalmadi, was arrested Monday 25 April and appeared in court Tuesday, charged, according to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation with “conspiracy to cause favour to a private firm based in Switzerland in awarding the contract for Timing, Scoring & Result system at an inflated cost of Rs. 141 crore [ed. note: CHF27.7 million].
Kalmadi is the third top official to be arrested since March in connection with the investigation.
A lawyer was arrested for throwing a slipper at Kalmadi as he arrived at court Tuesday.
Wednesday, Indian media report that the Indian Olympic Association have replaced him as president (the IOC in Lausanne has not yet confirmed the information).
The company in question, while not named by the court, is clearly Swiss Timing, based in Corgémont, canton Bern, which is owned by the Swatch Group. The scandal has been whipped up by the Indian press for months, but reached a new peak this week, implying in passing that Swiss Timing might be accused of wrongdoing, and even the Associated Press expressed confusion, saying in reports published Tuesday that “it was not immediately clear if Swiss Timing was also accused of alleged wrongdoing.” The sentence was later dropped from updates, but the older version is still available from several of AP’s client news outlets.
Swatch Group, in a press release issued 26 April, vehemently denies the Indian media reports and clarifies the financial situation, which has been the source of much confusion in the Indian press.
The CWG were pursued by charges of corruption months before the Games took place:
Swatch Group vehemently denies Indian media rumours
Beatrice Howald, press spokesperson for Swatch, told GenevaLunch Wednesday that the company has not been contacted or accused by Indian authorities of any illegal activities, nor has it been able to obtain any information in response to its efforts to determine if there were problems with the contract bid process.
“Swiss Timing would have had nothing to gain by this,” she points out, qualifying the company’s reputation in the field of sports events timing as “excellent”.
Swiss Timing was responsible for timing and scoring at the Games. A second company, India-based Gem International, may have been involved in obtaining the contract, but the process now under investigation by a court in Delhi, appears murky.
Swiss Timing has long history of timing top world sports events
Swiss Timing is one of the world’s top sports events timekeepers:
photo: Xavier Haepe / wikipedia (flickr.com/people/vier)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Union’s frayed edges were showing Tuesday 26 April as governments and their citizens absorbed the newly published figures for sovereign debt and deficits, some worse than expected, while Italy and France called for reforms of Schengen rules in the face of massive immigration from North Africa.
Eurostat, the statistical office for the European Union, published 2010 figures for the euro area and the 27-member area, showing the five countries with the largest deficits (budget spending outstripping revenues) in terms of percentages of GDP (gross domestic product) to be: Ireland (32.4%), Greece (10.5%), the United Kingdom (10.4%), Spain (9.2%) and Portugal (9.1%). Greece had agreed not to let its deficit go deeper than 9 percent, the BBC points out.
Deficits on the whole decreased in 2010 compared to 2009 while debt and GDP increased, says Eurostat.
Five countries above 90%, debt ratio to GDP
Government debt (amount owed long-term by the government) declined as a whole but the debt ratio to GDP remained at significantly high levels for several countries.
“Fourteen Member States had government debt ratios higher than 60% of GDP in 2010: Greece (142.8%), Italy (119.0%), Belgium (96.8%), Ireland (96.2%), Portugal (93.0%), Germany (83.2%), France (81.7%), Hungary (80.2%), the United Kingdom (80.0%), Austria (72.3%), Malta (68.0%), the Netherlands (62.7%), Cyprus (60.8%) and Spain (60.1%).”
US, Swiss debt ratio compared to European ratios
The US debt, by comparison, is about 97 percent of GDP, a fact emphasized by the warning issued by S&P’s 18 April on the federal debt.
Switzerland’s federal debt was about 20 percent of GDP in early 2010, and with communal and cantonal debt added in, it stood at about 40 percent, well below the G20 average (closer to 100) and the average of most of Europe. Reuters, in December 2010, reported that Bern “expects Switzerland’s overall public debt to fall to around 37 percent of gross domestic product according to international standards next year [2011], less then half of the rate predicted by the OECD for the euro zone.”
Government spending decreased in 2010 in the two zones as a whole, while revenues were essentially static: “Government expenditure in the euro area was equivalent to 50.4% of GDP and government revenue to 44.4%. The figures for the EU27 were 50.3% and 44.0% respectively. In both zones, the government expenditure ratio decreased between 2009 and 2010, while the government revenue ratio remained almost unchanged.”
British military spending data questioned
Two countries prompted “reservations”, Romania and Great Britain, the latter for concerns over its reporting of military spending: “Eurostat is expressing a reservation on the quality of the data reported by the United Kingdom, due to uncertainties on the time of recording of military expenditure. The United Kingdom does not record military expenditure on a delivery basis, as required by the relevant Eurostat Decision of 9 March 2006.”
EU figures compared to Switzerland, USA
The warning by S&P’s 18 April on the US federal debt underscored it’s
Schengen rules don’t fit current situation, France and Italy argue
France and Italy, which have been at odds over how to handle large numbers of North Africans flowing across Europe’s southern borders, joined forces Tuesday on the occasion of a French-Italian summit. Leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi have jointly sent off a letter to Brussels, they said, underscoring their commitment to the Schengen agreement on the free movement of people but insisting that the agreement needs to be reformed.
They did not specify what this would involve, but they cited the exceptional circumstances caused by events in North Africa, according to Le Monde (Fr).
Complete table, by country, from Eurostat
The Greek dilemma, Economist, 26 April 2011
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sale of CHF320 million and a profit of nearly CHF49m have given Geneva’s international airport a record year for 2010.
The airport published the figures 18 April.
Passenger numbers were up 4.91 percent for the year to 11.88 million, despite winter storms and volcanic ashes in the first part of 2010.
The number of passengers at the airport has grown by about one-third in the past 10 years.
London was the top destination in 2010, with 1.9 million flights, and Paris was the second with some 859,000 flights.
Share of traffic at Geneva Airport, by airline, 2010 (source: Geneva Airport) - click on image to view larger
The airport says it is in good financial health, with 2010 called a “transition year”, with CHF51m invested in completing renovations and starting work on a new east wing.
Robert Deillon, Geneva councillor with responsibility for the airport, said it invested CHF320m between 2006 and 2010 without turning to public funds.
Aviation revenue such as landing fees and passenger fees accounted for 49.5 percent of total income.
Non-aviation revenue, which includes income from shops (23.5 percent) was 50.5 percent of the total.
Workers in 2010 had a small amount left over after inflation cut into slightly higher salaries
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There wasn’t a lot left over for additional spending in 2010, in Swiss households, despite wages inching up by 0.8 percent. Inflation also rose by a whiff, 0.7 percent, leaving a small improvement of 0.1 percent. A monthly salary of CHF10,000 would thus have seen a real improvement of CHF100 in 2010.
The Swiss nominal wage index rose to 108 points, compared to the base of 100 set in 2005.
The 2010 figures were lower than the two preceding years, with 2.0 and 2.1 percent increases respectively, for 2008 and 2009.
The 2010 salaries, with an overall 0.8 percent increase, were negotiated in October 2009, in the uncertain and gloomy climate of the economic crisis.
The figures include the half million workers covered by collective contracts, negotiated for 0.7 percent increases in 2010, and the services sectors, where salaries rose 0.9 percent.
The textile industry saw the smallest salary increases while the chemical industry, up 1 percent on average, saw the largest, but for the chemical industry this was nevertheless the lowest rise since 1999.
Related stories this week: latest figures on Swiss Consumer Price Index, Swiss unemployment
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More packages are being sent in Switzerland, the letter business remains strong and more people are switching their banking to Post Finance, says Swiss Post. The result is higher profits for 2010, up from CHF728 million in 2009 to CHF910 in 2010, a 25 percent increase. Revenues (operating income) were CHF8.36 million.
The national postal system argues that it needs strong profits “to further increase its equity, help finance the pension fund, fund its investments and distribute an appropriate share of profit to the Confederation.”
Its board of directors is proposing to the Swiss government that “CHF 100 million of the profit for 2010 be used to finance the pension fund, CHF 200 million be distributed to the Confederation and to further increase equity.”
Efficiency was the key to better earnings in the letter business, where the addressed letters business continues its slow downward slide, decreasing by 1.5 percent in 2010. Promotional mailings have, however, helped make up the loss.
Retail finance accounts for 61 percent of Swiss Post’s business, bringing in CHF571m in 2010, up sharply from CHF441m in 2009. Swiss Post has benefitted to some extent from a drain of customers away from UBS since it was bailed out by the government in 2008.
Swiss Post employs more than 45,000 people and works in four main markets: communications, logistics, retail finance and public passenger transport.
Source: UNHCR, Geneva, 28 March 2011 (click on image to view larger)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of asylum seekers in the world has been halved in the past 10 years, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says in its 2010 annual asylum report issued early Monday 27 March. Whether this is good news or bad is difficult to judge, concedes the Geneva-based organization’s head.
“The global dynamics of asylum are changing. Asylum claims in the industrialized world are much lower than a decade ago while year-on-year levels are up in only a handful of countries,” notes High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “We need to study the root causes to see if the decline is because of fewer push factors in areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum.”
He notes that developing countries still host the lion’s share of applications, and asks that other countries continue to support countries like Liberia, Tunisia and Egypt who are hosting large numbers of asylum seekers due to conflicts in neighbouring countries.
The report covers 44 countries that are destinations for asylum seekers.
US remains most popular host country
Switzerland was the 8th most popular country, with 13,800 applicants.
The report states that 358,800 asylum applications were made to industrialized countries last year, a 5 percent fall from 2009, and some 42 percent lower than the decade’s peak in 2001, when almost 620,000 asylum applications were made.
The US is the top destination for asylum seekers, for the fifth year in a row, followed by France, Germany, Sweden and Canada. These five countries accounted for 56 percent of all applications.
US numbers of new applicants were boosted by requests for asylum by more Chinese and Mexicans, while France saw an increase in applicants from Serbia, Russia and Congo. Germany saw an influx from Serbia, notably Kosovo, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The UNHCR says the “development is widely attributed to the introduction of visa-free entry to the European Union for nationals of these two countries since December 2009.”
Serbia has highest number of applicants
Serbia was the country with the highest number of applicants, 28,900, which the UNHCR says is almost as high as in 2001, “soon after teh Kosovo crisis”.
Several changes have taken place, including:
- the number of applications from Afghans fell by 9 percent and whereas in the past Norway and the UK were the main destinations, Germany and Sweden have become the top hosts
- Chinese asylum-seekers made up the third-largest asylum group in 2010, partly due to a substantial drop in the number of new applications from Iraq and Somalia
- for the first time since 2005, Iraq was not one of the top two countries of origin of asylum-seekers. It dropped to fourth place, followed by the Russian Federation
- Somalia, which occupied the third spot in 2009, fell to sixth in 2010.
Two-wheelers most at risk on Vaud's roads
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The number of people killed in road accidents in Vaud in 2010 is 40 percent lower than in 2003, show new figures for the canton issued Monday 14 March.
Thirty-six people lost their lives in 2010, compared to 63 in 2003. The main factors remain speed, inattention, refusal to give priority and drunkenness.
One-third of the drivers at fault were between 18 and 29 years old, a percentage disproportionately higher than the number of drivers in that age group.
The number of motorcyclists killed on Vaud roads last year was down from 13 to 8, but authorities say this group remains the most at risk.
Accidents overall fell to 5,206, nearly 100 fewer than in 2009, despite some 15,000 more vehicles registered in Vaud in 2010, a 2.9 percent increase.
The number of cars actually on the road appeared to be stable, according to federal figures.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – PostFinance, the banking arm of the La Poste, the Swiss postal system, is giving deposit account holders 2010 centimes, a little over CHF20, to say thanks for making 2010 a good year.
Profits were up 28 percent, it announced Wednesday 23 February, to CHF575 million. PostFinance acquired 119,000 new customers who set up 198,000 new accounts.
“Despite the difficulties on the financial markets, good interest income was one of the main factors leading to this excellent result, along with cost discipline,” PostFinance noted in its press releasee.
Euro deposit holders will receive 2010 cents if they had interest-earning accounts 31 December 2010.
Swiss tourism in 2010: not gloomy despite the high franc (a room with a dark but not gloomy view: hotel window in canton Valais, overlooking full moon, Alps and castle tower)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Trade figures for Switzerland released 22 February show continuing solid growth in exports in January despite the strong franc at the start of the year, and a relatively strong performance by the tourism industry overall in 2010.
Exports grew 4.4 percent in January compared to December, which had month-on-month growth of 4.3 percent. Pharmaceutical prices fell under strong price pressure, but this was offset by the watch and machinery demand.
The trade surplus for January was CHF2.0 million, with exports of (rounded figures) CHF15.2m and imports of CHF13.3m.
Tourism final figures for 2010 show increases except for European visitors
According to final 2010 figures published 22 February by the Federal Statistical Office, the number of overnight stays registered in the Swiss hotel industry in 2010 was 36.2 million, a rise of 1.7 percent, or 619,000 overnight stays more than in 2009. Swiss demand was up 2.2 percent and that of foreign visitors 1.4 percent. “Overnight stays by visitors from the European continent (excluding Switzerland) showed a decrease of 2 percent”, according to the FSO press release, likely reflecting the rise of the Swiss franc against the euro.
Overnight stays were spread unequally, with Basel, Geneva and Zurich all having hotels closer to capacity, at more than 60 percent, than other parts of the country, while Neuchatel was under 30 percent.
Slide became clear in December
The year-end tourism figures are optimistic, but they hide a slide in overnight stays in December: down 3.3 percent compared to December 2009, with foreigners’ overnight stays down 7.4 percent. Germany, one of Switzerland’s key countries for tourism, sent 8.7 percent, less than Belgium (-39 percent) and Italy (-17 percent) in percentage terms, but the largest drop in absolute terms, with 36,000 fewer German overnight stays. UK tourist numbers fell by 13,000 in December, possibly linked to the weak pound.
Despite the relatively weak dollar, US visitors increased by 3,000 in December. And China showed the largest absolute increase, with 3,500 more visitors.
Bern to give tourism industry financial boost
The ruling Swiss Federal Council 16 February announced a series of measures to help industries that are most hurt by a strong franc, including tourism. The governmen is increasing tourism promotion budgets for 2011 and 2012 by CHF12 million to offset the continuing strength of the Swiss franc, citing the lag time between a higher currency and its impact on the number of visitors.
Links to other sites: Swiss Federal Customs office (Fre), Reuters
Increase due almost entirely to pedestrians outside crosswalks
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of deaths on roads in Switzerland fell by 4 percent in 2010 but the number of pedestrian deaths was up by 27 percent, new figures from the Swiss Safety Council (bfu/bpa) show. There was little change in the number of people killed while using a crosswalk, but pedestrians killed elsewhere rose from 39 to 56.
Overall number of accidents continues to fall
Alcohol and speed factors remain high
Photo, Mr Kio on flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/igievil/
A total of 361 people died on Swiss roads in 2010. Speed is estimated to have played a role in about one-third of fatal accidents and alcohol in about one-fifth.
Another 4,508 people were seriously injured in road accidents in Switzerland in 2010. Speed may have been a factor in about one-quarter of these and alcohol in about one in seven accidents.
The number of accidents in 2010 was more than 500 lower than in 2005, with the number falling every year. The safety council attributes the decline to preventive efforts and more policing, but it says there are still far too many deaths and injuries.
Speed, crossing outside crosswalks a deadly combination
Most pedestrians are killed during busy traffic periods such as rush hour, the new annual safety council report indicates.
“Most pedestrian accidents occur while people are crossing the road, in towns, and during rush hour. A systematic reduction in speed would help reduce the number of accidents and reduce the seriousness of injuries caused by them.” Bfu/bpa notes that the percentage of deaths when cars are going 30kph is 10 percent, but this climbs to 70 percent when cars are going 50kph.
Swiss cut back on imported chocolate but eat a little more Swiss chocolate: 12 kg per person
Swiss chocolate makers are smiling despite the high franc
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Key companies in three Swiss industries whose business is linked to the country’s reputation, have noted, noted Tuesday 8 February that while the strong franc has not helped them, they are upbeat about the outlook for 2011, after good figures for 2010.
Swatch, the country’s largest watchmaker, the chocolate industry, and Givaudin, the Geneva-based fragrance company, saw good sales growth in 2010.
Swatch Tuesday 8 February confirmed its 2010 figures and published its forecast for 2011, saying it expects to achieve sales of CHF10 billion, up from CHF6.44b in 2010.
“The current outlook for 2011 appears positive, despite the unfavorable currency constellation at present, particularly the US Dollar and the Euro against the Swiss Franc”, the company notes in a press release.
Chocosuisse, the chocolate industry’s group of 18 major producers, said sales were up 2.4 percent in 2010 to CHF1.74b, after falling in 2009. Swiss chocolate accounts for 66.8 percent of the country’s chocolate, and for the first time in nine years the share of imported chocolate slipped slightly. The Swiss are eating more chocolate, however, adding to the manufacturers’ good news. The 300 grams extra a year consumed by the Swiss brings annual consumption up to 12 kg per person a year.
Givaudin’s chief executive told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that the company’s sales were up 7.1 percent in 2010 in Swiss francs, to CHF4.2 billion. The company sees little impact from the strong franc on its operating profits because it buys and sells in the same markets, he notes.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss residents could be forgiven for wondering if Novartis is in relatively good or bad shape Thursday morning, depending on which news sources they follow. The company’s annual report, published Thursday 27 January, shows net sales of $50.6 billion, up from $44.3b a year earlier. Net income was close to $10b, up from $8.5b.
But international business media focus on the gloomier side.
Australia creates flood tax
Displaced Afghan refugee Gul Hassan is taking refuge on a road side near Hajizai Afghan refugee village which was destroyed by recent floods; August 2010 (UNHCR / R. Ali)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsoon floods that devastated Pakistan in 2010 continue to cause extreme hardship in the face of a funding shortfall, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva says.
“This natural disaster, unprecedented in terms of destruction of housing and infrastructure, has necessitated an unprecedented response,” the IOM notes in a statement issues 27 January.
The UN agency coordinates some 300 agencies and NGO (non-governmental organization) groups involved in the Shelter Cluster programme to re-house people in the region.
It says international donors have contributed US$1.1 billion or 56 percent of a UN appeal for US$1.96b launched in September 2010. Agencies in the Shelter Cluster appealed for US$322 million and have received US$126m or 39 percent.
Some 11 million people were left homeless, with 1.7 million houses destroyed. Punjab province alone saw twice as many people lose their homes as did in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Those caught by the floods include Afghan refugees.
Millions have been helped but “unless more funding is forthcoming, at least half a million families who lost their homes and need help to rebuild either a one-room or a transitional shelter will receive nothing,” according to the IOM.
Loading Easyjet bags at Geneva's Cointrin Airport
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -Geneva’s Cointrin International Airport posted a record number of passengers in 2010 despite discouraging factors such as economic gloom, skies gray with ash, runways thick with snow, strikes in neighbouring countries and even overweight planes. Some 11.9 million passengers used the airport, a 4.9 percent increase, and cargo traffic rose by nearly 33 percent to some 560 million tons.
The increases are surprising given both the many constraints and the small increase in the number of flights, up 2.74 percent, from 172,671 flights in 2009 to 177,400 in 2010.
Easyjet easily largest Geneva airline
Easyjet was the heavyweight at the airport in 2010, with 36 percent of the traffic, while Swiss was number two with 15 percent. Easyjet’s passenger traffic grew by 8.38 percent while Swiss traffic rose by 21.98 percent, reflecting the company’s commitment to build better routes for Geneva passengers.
Easyjet has been in the news for the past three days as the story has made media rounds about a December flight from Birmingham to Geneva, delayed while the staff worked to convince the 30-plus last passengers to board that they had to leave the plane because it was too heavy to take off. Some media have reported that they were threatened with arrest if they refused to leave the plane.
How airplanes are weighed
A golden rule of flying is that you cannot take a commercial plane into the air if it is overweight, but Easyjet says it is investigating how or why the 11 ton over-fueling occurred. Airliners are too big to simply roll onto scales as they head out of their berths, but their weight is routinely calculated. Eurocontrol, a European air safety organization, told GenevaLunch that the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) can vary per aircraft but also per flight. Takeoff weight is a calculation of dry operating weight + payload + fuel on board – taxi fuel.
“Commonly in aviation when talking about MTOW we mean the structural takeoff weight,” says a spokesperson. “This MTOW will be found in the aircraft manuals and official papers. It can sometimes be lowered due to several parameters such as lengths of the runway or atmospheric pressure or altitude.”
New Geneva connections, more seats in the works for 2011
Several new connections have been announced recently for Geneva: Easyjet is adding Mykonos in Greece, Lot is adding three morning flights for Warsaw, Poland and Emirates is adding daily Dubai flights. Lufthansa is moving to “thinner seats” to add more seats.
To our readers from GenevaLunch.com:
Thank you for sharing a wonderful year with us, and as 2010 draws to a close we wish you a peaceful and happy holiday season.
Real estate and recovery in share prices account for improvement
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Per capita net worth for Swiss households rose to about CHF333,000 in 2009, up from CHF316,000.
Home values rose in Switzerland in 2010
Housing prices and a recovery in share prices have brought Swiss household income back up to the level of 2007, before the 2008 global economic crisis, figures published Friday 19 November by the Swiss National Bank show. Financial assets held by households grew 8.7 percent in 2009, up CHF151 billion to CHF1,883 billion.
“Movements in financial assets were strongly influenced by rising stock market prices: roughly one-third of the price losses suffered in 2008 was recouped in 2009 on stock markets in Switzerland and abroad,” the central bank notes in a statement. The stock market improvement resulted in the value of household shares rising by CHF43 billion to CHF212b. The value of collective investment schemes climbed by CHF19b to CHF181b.
Pension funds see contributions outweigh benefits drawn
Pension funds, too, saw an improvement: contributions to occupational pension schemes exceeded the benefits drawn and price gains were recorded on pension fund investments, says the SNB.
More home buyers and rising apartment prices account for higher real estate value
First three quarters 2010 show CHF8.46b loss due to foreign currency holdings
UBS bailout fund “positive”
A fistful of dollars isn't what it was a year ago, same for euros
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has posted a loss of CHF8.46 billion for the first nine months of 2010, due largely to its foreign currency holdings. Exchange rate losses totalled CHF21.2b during the first three quarters, with the euro trading 10.3 percent lower than at end-2009 and the US dollar falling 5.4 percent in the same period.
A year earlier the SNB showed a CHF6.89b profit for the same period.
The loss is before allocation to provisions for currency reserves, which the SNB is required to set up to maintain currency reserves at a level needed for monetary policy.
Balancing act, Swiss budget 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss economy’s recovery in 2010 is good news for taxpayers: Bern confirmed Thursday morning 4 Novmber that, based on figures at the end of September 2010, the Swiss Confederation will have a CHF1.4 billion surplus rather than the CHF2b deficit which is in the budget. Cost-cutting and the economic recovery, which has resulted in more tax revenue from a variety of sources, are behind the improvement, whose likelihood was announced after Q2 figures were in. Companies have sought more financing, withholding tax is up 10 percent compared to a year earlier and value-added tax revenue has risen.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The final vote counts are dribbling in from the closely-watched 2010 US mid-term elections. Even before Americans headed for the polls a Geneva-based international group was appealing to US citizens who live outside the country to fill in a survey, anonymously, by the US-based Overseas Vote Foundation. American Citizens Abroad (ACA) in Geneva has played an active role in improving access to ballots for overseas citizens and their children who were born or live outside the US. The Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) was created in part to address a problem that affects thousands of Americans: US citizens who are subject to taxes but who are unable to vote for a variety of reasons.
The survey has been sent to 90,000 US citizens living in 100 countries. The OVF says it is designed to “capture crucial voter feedback” on the effects of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (Move) Act. “Signed into law in 2009, the Move Act is intended to make the electoral process more accessible to both civilians and military voters and is widely regarded as the most significant such reform since the 1986 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. During the lead-up to today’s General Election, voting advocates and political leaders have hotly debated the states’ effectiveness in implementing the reforms as well as the Department of Justice’s enforcement role.”
The survey is expected to provide the first measure of the new Act’s impact on the 2010 election results.
Broadband critical to meeting UN’s Millennium Development Goals
The World in 2010: ICT Facts and Figures Internet users by region (source: ITU)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of people using the Internet doubled to two billion in the past five years, new figures from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva show.
The fastest rate of growth is in developing countries, but huge gaps in access remain:
“By the end of 2010, 71 percent of the population in developed countries will be online compared to 21 percent of the population in developing countries. While in developed countries 65 percent of people have access to the Internet at home, this is the case for only 13.5 percent of people in developing countries where Internet access in schools, at work and public locations is critical. Regional differences are significant: 65 percent of Europeans are on the Internet, compared to only 9.6 percent of Africans.
This isn't the point: will she be paid the same salary? That's the point!
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland moved up three places to reach number 10 in the 2010 rankings for gender equality by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. The improvement is based largely on the growing number of women in political posts, notably in the parliament. The country continues to lag, however, in paying equal salaries and it has the least generous maternity leave in Europe. It ranks 67 for wage equality for similar work, based on a survey, and 70 for women in professional and technical posts.
The estimated earned income of women in Switzerland in 2010 (PPP, $US, used for all countries) was about 32,000 compared to 40,000 for men, an improvement over the 2009 figure of about 27,000.
France has slipped badly to number 46, the result of falling numbers of women in political posts.
Scandinavian countries continue to outshine their fellow Europeans, leading the league tables, with Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland at the top of the list. The US is in the top 20 for the first time in the five-year history of the report, reflecting more women in the Barack Obama’s administration and a closing wage gap.
The WEF annual Gender Gap Index measures 134 countries in 12 areas under three main categories, economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment and political empowerment.
Cheung Yan / Zhang Yin
The world’s three richest women are Chinese, with personal wealth ranging from $5.6 billion to $4b, according to Huran’s 2010 Rich List, which ranks the richest people in China. Unlike the world’s next three richest women, who own Zara, the Gap and Bennetton fashion houses, the Chinese women have made their money in paper recycling, property and running a conglomerate.
Even more startling, 11 of the world’s top 20 self-made wealthiest women are Chinese, a rate accounted for by good childcare solutions and no stigma being attached to success in business for women, according to a CNN report on the Hurun list, which cites a source saying the average work week for Chinese women is 71 hours.
But women remain a small portion, nevertheless, of China’s wealthiest individuals, at 11 percent of the total, and the average wealth of the 50 richest women is only one-third that of the 50 richest men. The three top self-made women: Zhang Yin (also known as Cheung Yan, her Cantonese name), 53, head of Nine Dragons Paper, Wu Yajun, 46, of Longfor Property, and Chen Lihua, 69, of Fuhua International, a Hong Kong conglomerate.
The Hurun report, published 12 October, notes:
- Average wealth grew by 64 percent over the past two years, with property the biggest creator of wealth, despite a 10 percent drop in the value of the stock market. Fastest growing areas of wealth are healthcare, IT, retail and apparel
- 1,363 individuals topped 1 billion yuan ($150 million), up from 1,000 in 2009 and only 24 ten years ago
- 189 US$ known billionaires but with a possible total of 400 to 500 billionaires in China, the largest number in the world
- 95 percent of the richest Chinese make their wealth from growing domestic consumption; less than 5 percent are reliant on exports.
Three people are sharing the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, for their work explaining how the jobless rate could be so high when so many jobs were on the market: US professors Dale Mortensen and Peter Diamond, nominated to the US Federal Reserve, and British-Cypriot Christopher Pissarides. Their work on the search market has deepened understanding of why it can take a long time for employers and potential employees to find each other after a shock to the system such as the global economic crisis of 2008-2009.
“Search theory has emerged as the predominant model for considering the effects of economic-policy measures on the labour market,” the Nobel committee said in announcing the winners, who will share the 10 million Swedish kroner prize. The size of unemployment benefits and hiring and firing rules are part of these measures, it noted, but search theory also includes the difficulty of matching the right worker to the right job.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, New York Times, Nobel Prize, Paul Krugman’s blog, NY Times
SNB revises 2010 Swiss and euro region growth forecasts upwards
Inflation rise will be lower than earlier forecast
A place of one's own (here: Cologny, Geneva), mortgage market mostly unchanged
Ed. note: the dollar rose to CHF1.01 and the euro to CHF1.32 in late Thursday trading against the franc.
Update 16:55 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss National Bank (SNB), like the federal government’s group of experts, has raised its forecast for the Swiss economy, saying Thursday 16 September that it expects 2.5 percent GDP growth for 2010, while noting that 2011 will be less rosy. At the same it revised downwards its inflation forecast for the next three years, and it has left interest rates unchanged.
It is leaving the target range for the three-month Libor unchanged at 0.00–0.75 percent and says it intends to keep the Libor within the lower part of the target range at around 0.25 percent.
The Swiss franc rose Wednesday on speculation the SNB would tighten its current expansionary monetary policy and raise interest rates.
SNB September 2010 inflation forecast, Switzerland
On the Swiss mortgage front the bank says “most banks report unchanged lending conditions and a further increase in demand. The growth in mortgage lending and real estate prices has decelerated marginally, compared to the situation at the end of 2009.” The household mortgage situation still requires close watching, it suggests.
“Bleak” exports will nevertheless dampen economy in 2011
Swiss exports are likely to suffer i n 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s growth forecast for 2010 has been raised from 1.8 to 2.7 percent by the government’s Expert Group on Economic Forecasts, but it is expected to slide again in 2011 to 1.2 percent due to a “bleak” exports situation next year. Slowing growth internationally coupled with a high Swiss franc will hurt exports.
“The assessment that a normal recovery in the world economy is being hindered by side effects from the financial crisis has been generally confirmed,” the group states in its quarterly forecast. Recovery from the global crisis has been relatively good in the past year mainly because of “extremely expansive monetary and fiscal policies” according to the expert group, but “signs are increasingly showing that the world economy has switched into a lower gear over the last few months.
The cooling of the economy should gain strength in many countries over the next few quarters.” The euro zone has fared better than initially expected but “European growth prospects remain modest against the background of the slowing world economy,” the report argues.
Switzerland has had strong GDP (gross domestic product) growth in the first two quarters of 2010. “In contrast to most OECD countries, Swiss economic output had reached it pre-recession levels by mid-2010.
