NEUCHATEL / BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland saw 4.3 percent more bankruptcies in 2010 than in 2009, figures published Friday 27 May show: 10,932 cases. The relatively good news from Federal Statistics Office is that outstanding bills that could not be collected by the closing of the bankruptcies totaled CHF2.1 billion, an 8.3 percent drop.
The Swiss are getting worse about paying bills on time, the office notes, with the number of bill reminders up 5.1 percent in 2011.
Unpaid bills sent to collectors rose 2%
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fallout from the global economic crisis is showing up in figures released 31 May by from the Swiss Federal Statistical office, which shows an 8 percent increase in bankruptcies filed in 2009 compared to a year earlier. The office also released bill collection figures, with a 2 percent increase, some 2.5 million orders to collect bills.
The number of bankruptcies filed was nearly 12,000, with 843 more than in 2008, a 10-year high. Ticino saw the sharpest increase, 26 percent, but Zurich was also high, up 18 percent.
Nationwide, losses in 2009 from bankruptcies were lower, down 12 percent for a difference of CHF305.8 million, but the overall figures hides steep increases in cantons Geneva and Vaud, up 66 percent and 55 percent respectively. Geneva showed losses of CHF551.5m and Vaud CHF390.5m out of total losses for Switzerland of CHF2.1 billion.
Giovanni Bisignani, Iata
Cointrin Airport, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world’s airlines are expected to lose $5.6 billion in 2010, nearly twice earlier forecasts of $3.8b. The losses will come on the heels of an “Annus Horribilis” in 2009 where losses will likely be $11b for the industry worldwide, IATA (International Air and Transport Association) announced Tuesday 15 December. Between 2000 and 2009 airlines lost $49.1b, a Decennis Horribilis, according to Giovanni Bisignani, the industry group’s director general and CEO.
Bisignani, at the group’s annual press conference in Geneva, pleaded for less government regulation and a more competitive environment to ensure that the industry does not suffer another decade with this level of losses. “Government regulation is keeping the airline industry financially crippled,” he noted. “It is 30 percent cheaper to fly today than a decade ago. This is a very competitive industry but governments still refuse to let airlines operate competititively.”
