Retail shopping was relatively brisk in November (photo: Schilliger Garden Centre, Gland, Novembr 2011)
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – Swiss prices fell at an annual rate of 0.7 percent in 2011, show figures published Monday 9 January by the Swiss Statistical Office. The November inflation rate was -0.5 percent.
Full-year consumer price index figures will be available in a month.
Retails sales figures for November 2011 were also published Monday and show a 1.8 percent increase over November 2010, with the non-food sector showing positive growth, while food, drinks and tobacco slipped slightly.
The jobless rate rose, from 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent, with 2,100 fewer new jobs posted but the unemployment rate for the year of 2011 was one of the three best in the past nine years, at 3.1 percent.
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.
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – Swiss retail sales were healthy in June, up 7.1 percent compared to the previous month and up 7.4 percent compared to a year earlier. Figures released 2 August by the federal statistics office in Neuchatel show that retail trade was up across the board.
Retail sales, Switzerland, turnover with seasonal adjustments in red (chart, Swiss Federal Statistical Office)
US consumers shopped in record numbers on Black Friday, 26 November, and spent more than ever, according to a National Retail Federation survey, spending an average of $365 between Friday and Sunday 28 November, reports the Globe & Mail. Online shopping contributed the highest-ever recorded percentage to all consumer spending since the annual survey was first conducted in 2004. Investors in retail stocks were not convinced and suggested that a lull may set in, according to Reuters.
The day after the US Thanksgiving holiday opens the Christmas shopping period is traditionally known as Black Friday because from retailers start to make money from that date, putting them “in the black”.
Tourism up strongly, unemployment down slightly, retail sales slip
Geneva continues to have highest jobless rate
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss economic indicators this week are showing a mixed picture, with several federal statistics published Friday. Overnight stays rose by 5 percent overall and by 6 percent for foreign visitors in March, compared to March 2009, an increase of 153,000 stays for the month.
The good news continues with unemployment, which fell from 4.2 percent in March to 4.0 percent in April, representing 7,462 fewer people on the unemployment office books, but the figure is still 16 percent higher than a year earlier. Geneva and Vaud both saw an improvement, with Neuchatel showing one of the greatest drops, from 7 percent to 6.5, but all three continue to have higher rates than the rest of the country. Geneva’s rate, at 7.2 percent, remains the highest cantonal unemployment rate in Switzerland.
Less positive were figures for retail sales, down 0.9 percent for the month of March compared to February.
Core inflation figures and better-than-expected retail sales in February are behind a strong rise in the Canadian dollar, popularly known as the loonie, and it is now nearly at parity with the US dollar, reports the Globe & Mail in Canada.
Chinese industrial output has jumped 16.1 percent in October compared to last year, and officials said they were confident that GDP growth would reach 8 percent in the year. Retail sales were also up 16.2 percent, surprising analysts. The Chinese government has spent hugely to bolster the economy following a sharp drop in demand from its trading partners.
Loans, especially yuan-denominated loans, were down sharply in October, the Central Bank announced. The new loans were down 51 percent compared to September, and caused a wide-spread drop in banks’ shares in markets.
Both the consumer price index and the producer price index were down in September in numbers released by the Chinese statistics office. CPI was 1.1 percent lower compared to September last year. BBC, Wall Street Journal, Xinhua
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Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss spending is showing a mixed picture, with the UBS index for May remaining well below its average: 0.91 in April, down to 0.77 in May, in contrast to its average of 1.50 covring several years. The retail sector, meeting at a conference in Zurich, says its sales rose 4.4 percent in 2008, to CHF95.6 million, reports TSR (Fre). The increase is the best since 1991. Migros and Coop, the two large supermarket chains, account for 30 percent of retailing in Switzerland.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Retails sales fell sharply in March, down 6.6 percent compared to March 2008. The first quarter of 2009 show a 1.2 percent drop compared to the first three months of 2008.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Despite the economic news and fears of recession, Swiss retail sales have remained strong: figures for September 2008 show that even adjusted for inflation and the number of selling days in the month, sales were up 2.4% over the same period a year earlier.
