Consumers are turning to Lindt's premium chocolates after a lull
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss chocolate-maker Lindt & Spruengli said Tuesday 15 March that profits in 2010 were up a hefty 25.3 percent, with top quality chocolate finding favour with consumers again, after a 2009 dip.
The company’s profits rose despite the impact of negative currency movements, notably with the Swiss franc gaining during the year. The company, based in Kilchberg, near Zurich, gained market share in all countries and all markets, it noted, with the exception of Australia. Europe, the US and Canada had double-digit growth.
Four men, all with long experience at the company, were named to a new Extended Group Management team that will push Lindt & Spruengli further into foreign and in particular developing markets. “Substantial” investments in new markets included opening Lindt boutiques and Lindt Chocolat Cafés.
Tree trimmers in Geneva, Switzerland (photo ©2011 Rohit Acharya, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhohit)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Developed countries in particular are not yet out of the woods following the global economic recession, where jobs are concerned. The ILO (International Labour Organization) in Geneva says in its 2011 Annual Report, published 24 January, that unemployment remains high for the third year in a row and in developing economies the level of “vulnerable employment and working poverty” remains high.
Workers in vulnerable employment, “defined as the sum of own-account workers and contributing family workers, are less likely to have formal work arrangements, and are therefore more likely to lack elements associated with decent employment such as adequate social security and recourse to effective social dialogue mechanisms” according to the ILO.
“These trends stand in stark contrast to the recovery seen in several key macroeconomic indicators: global GDP (gross domestic production), private consumption, investment, and international trade and equity markets have all recovered in 2010, surpassing pre-crisis levels,” the report notes.
Global unemployment in 2010 was 205 million, unchanged from 2009, and 27.6 million more than on the eve of the global economic crisis in 2007, the report indicates. The ILO projects a very slight improvement to a rate of 6.1 per cent, equivalent to 203.3 million unemployed, through 2011.
EU and developed countries have brunt of unemployment Read more…
ICann, UPU sign historice domain name agreement in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A new top-level domain, .post , has been created as a result of an agreement signed Saturday12 December by the Universal Postal Union and Icann (Universal Postal Union and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number), which has global responsibility for overseeing Internet domain names. The agreement ties together for the first time at the highest level the physical world of postal services and the Internet. The UPU is the first non-governmental organization to manage a domain, setting a precedent for other UN and international bodies.
The UPU is a United Nations organization based in Bern, Switzerland, established by the 1874 Treaty of Bern to bring order to the chaos of international postal exchanges at the time. Its 191 members are governments, postal services and other stakeholders in the postal delivery business, who together have 600,000 postal service offices around the world.
Philipp Hildebrand, SNB
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The incoming head of the Swiss National Bank, Philipp Hildebrand, says Switzerland needs tighter banking regulations than most countries, due to its size relative to the country’s economy. Total banking assets exceed seven times Switzerland’s GDP, he notes, and they are very concentrated, with the two big banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, having two-thirds of the total.
Recovery may be underway but the costs to the global economy, longer term, loom large. “The potential costs of the support measures taken – capital injection, asset purchases, and guarantees of bank debt – in the G7 countries together with Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland amount to about 20 percent of GDP in these economies,” he says, although actual outlays have been about 8 percent.
Hildebrand, who takes over as SNB chairman in January 2010 when Jean-Pierre Roth retires, made his remarks in a speech Wednesday evening 18 November at the University of Geneva.
The SNB is focusing on two areas of bank regulation changes, in line with recommendations drawn up by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) The FSB was created in April 2009 and is housed at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.
The world is spending 45 percent more on arms than it did in 1999, and military spending rose by 4 percent in 2008 alone, says Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Worldwide military expenditure in 2008 was an estimated $1,464 billion, according to figures released 8 June to mark the launch of the 2009 edition of its Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament and International Security.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WHO (World Health Organization) reports Monday 4 April that worldwide almost 1,000 cases of swine flu in 20 countries have been confirmed, most of the cases in Mexico (590). The number of cases officially reported to the WHO one day earlier was 787, in 17 countries. Mexico reported a new death over the weekend, bringing its total to 25.
The WHO says the flu is largely under control in Europe at the moment. Map of cases worldwide
