Analysts Upbeat On Swiss Economy

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

24 April 2002

In a forecast summary released on Tuesday, a leading economic research institute has predicted 1.7% growth for the Swiss economy this year, and 2.3% for 2003.

The Crea Institute of Applied Macroeconomics, based in Lausanne, issued its upbeat forecast following a week in which the Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research downgraded its estimate for this year from 1.7% to 1.2%, and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the Swiss National Bank both put forward cautious predictions of around 1%.

The latest report suggested that private consumption had been the motor behind the economy last year, and would remain so during the first half of this year:

'Without too much risk of being wrong, one can say that it was only thanks to household consumption that the Swiss economy did not slide into recession in 2001,' the Crea report argued.

The research institute's economic summary said that although the strength of the Swiss recovery would depend largely on that of the United States, it expected to see stronger Swiss exports in the second half of the year strengthening the country's finances.

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