Credit Suisse, Zurich head office
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland will either be in a recession in 2009, the view of KOF Economic Institute in Zurich, published Monday, or it will experience slower growth but without a recession, the view of Credit Suisse, published Tuesday.
Zurich, Switzerland (romandie/ats, Fre) – Economiesuisse, which one month ago hired a new director, Pascal Gentinetta, says a turbulent period is now behind it. The group, the largest umbrella organization representing various actors in the Swiss economy, notes that Swissmem, which represents the mechanical and engineering industries, will remain part of Economiesuisse and that the accent is being put on better integrating its members.
Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps/ats, Fre) – Pascal Gentinetta, 36, has been named the new head of economiesuisse which calls itself the largest umbrella organization representing the Swiss economy. He has been with the group since 1999 and previously worked in the federal government’s finance department. He replaces Rudolf Ramsauer, who is leaving at the end of September to join the communications and public relations department at Nestle’s head office in Vevey. More than 30,000 Swiss companies are members of economiesuisse, which plays an important business lobbying role as well as acting as a representative of business in government project consultations.
Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Swiss exports (SFr 97.37) were up more than 12% for the first half of 2007. Imports (SFr 90.71) rose 11.1%. The resulting trade surplus of SFr 6.7 billion was characterized as "colossal" by the Swiss Customs Office, which released the figures Thursday.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss retail sales continue to be strong, with a year on year increase of nearly 5% to the end of May, the Swiss federal statistics department announced Tuesday.
Zurich, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The Swiss stock exchange opened Monday with a new "family" of stocks, the SLI (Swiss Leader Index), part of its most important restructuring since 1988. The index contains the 30 companies with the most liquid shares traded in Switzerland. The SLI’s opening quote was 1411.18.
The exchange’s star index of shares, the SMI, has 25 companies and 24 of these figure on the new index (Swatch’s nominal shares are not listed). A significant difference between the two is that the new SLI limits or caps trading, thus reducing the weight of the four major players, Nestlé, Novartis, Roche and UBS, to 9%. They account for 60% of the SMI index.
