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Swiss Economic Outlook Continues to Improve Slightly

Date

25 May 2016

Sections

Euro & Finance

ZEW-CS Financial Market Test Switzerland

Swiss Economic Outlook Continues to Improve Slightly

The ZEW-CS-Indicator for the economic sentiment in Switzerland has increased by 6.0 points to a reading of 17.5 points in May 2016. By this improvement, economic expectations  have reached  their highest assessment balance since October 2015. The economic situation of Switzerland currently stands at exactly zero points. The ZEW-CS-Indicator reflects the expectations of the surveyed financial market experts regarding the economic development in Switzerland on a six-month time horizon. It is calculated on a monthly basis by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with Credit Suisse (CS), Zurich.

As in April 2016, about two thirds of the surveyed analysts continue to expect no change regarding the Swiss economic outlook over a six-month time horizon in the current May survey. There is even greater consensus regarding the assessment of the current economic situation: 90 per cent of analysts consider the current economic situation in Switzerland to be “normal”. Therefore, the general consensus amongst the experts regarding the Swiss economic environment appears to persist.

There is also a growing consensus among the analysts regarding stock market expectations for the Swiss main stock market index (SMI) as well as for the German stock market index (DAX). Although the balances of both indicators have remained nearly constant compared to the expectations in April, expert’s expectations have shifted towards more constant stock market levels. About 40 per cent of the experts predict constant stock market prices for each index respectively. The percentage of analysts expecting Swiss stocks to rise has dropped to its lowest level since the indicator was launched (40.6 per cent).

Detailed Results:

More detailed results – including survey participants' assessment of developments in other countries – can be found in this month's edition of the "Switzerland Financial market report" (please note that the URL is case sensitive):
http://www.zew.de/zew-cs-financialmarketreport

For more information please contact:
Dr. Lena Jaroszek, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-380, E-mail jaroszek@zew.de  
Lukas Gehrig (Credit Suisse), Phone +41 44 333 52 07, E-mail lukas.gehrig@credit-suisse.com

The Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)

ZEW works in the field of frontier empirical research in economics. The institute especially distinguished itself by working on internationally comparative studies in the context of Europe and by creating important scientific data bases, e.g. the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) and the ZEW Start-up Panel. ZEW’s key objectives are to conduct excellent economic research, provide science-based economic policy advice and transfer knowledge. ZEW was founded in 1991. ZEW currently has a staff of approximately 190 employees, two thirds of whom are researchers.

Research at ZEW:

Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy; Industrial Economics and International Management; Information and Communication Technologies; International Finance and Financial Management; Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management; Corporate Taxation and Public Finance; International Distribution and Redistribution; Competition and Regulation

www.zew.de   / www.zew.eu