Federal Council approved savings plan for nearly a billion in the period 2017-2019

The Federal Council approved today the program of stabilization of the federal budget for the 2017-2019 period provides for lower outputs of between 800 million and one billion francs a year. The plan was necessary because of the "holes" in the state budget caused by the strong appreciation of the franc following the abandonment of the minimum change threshold with the euro by the Swiss National Bank.

Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer told a press conference that it was necessary to significantly corrected downwards its forecasts for economic growth and inflation, adding that other savings programs will be in any case necessary in the near future to meet the brake on costs.

Since 2018, Maurer added, structural deficit up to 1.5 billion devolve on the implementation of the project. This is due, on the one hand, the increasing outputs in the field of asylum and, in Parliament's decisions with impact on costs as the old-age pension reform in 2020, army, Fund for national roads and traffic agglomeration.

The savings plan includes 24 measures, among the most egregious missed salary adjustments for employees of the federal government, lower outputs in international cooperation (586.9 million) and in education and research (485 million). Other sectors concerned are agriculture (255.5 million), the railway infrastructure (231,1 milllion), disability insurance (123 million) and the individual reductions in premiums (150.5 million).

Army, which at first would have to undergo budget cuts, should not undergo any changes instead.