Switzerland

An upgrade to a Swiss supercomputer has bumped the US Department of Energy’s Cray XK7 to number four on the list rating these machines. According to supercomputer ranking published on Monday, Switzerland’s 19.6 petaflop1 Piz Daint supercomputer ranked third in the world after Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe 2, two Chinese supercomputers.

The only other time the US fell out of the top three was in 1996. If there’s any consolation, U.S.-based systems secured five of the top ten spots on the TOP500 list.

Nestle has acquired a minority stake in US online meal-kit service Freshly, the latest investment a packaged food major has made in the category.

The world’s largest food maker did not disclose the size of stake it has bought in Freshly but said it was "the lead investor in the $77mln round of new funding" that was announced by Freshly on Monday.

The Swiss government cut its outlook for 2017 economic growth in its latest forecast on Tuesday, adding it expected inflation to remain subdued.
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said it expected economic growth of 1.4 percent in 2017 instead of 1.6% estimated previously in March. At the same time, projection for 2018 was retained at 1.9%.
"The slight downward adjustment compared with the previous forecast takes into account the more sluggish growth seen in the first quarter. Economic growth is expected to accelerate substantially throughout the year due to favourable economic conditions at an international level and thanks to the continued strong sentiment indicators," SECO said.

Swiss state pension fund Publica said it will divest from five weapons companies in response to an ongoing campaign by the Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK – ASIR) to blacklist 15 international arms manufacturers.

According to Swiss public radio, the CHF37 billion ($38 billion) Publica, Switzerland’s biggest pension fund, is selling off its stakes in five arms manufacturers from its investment portfolio. However, the fund wouldn’t specify which firms would be affected. Publica currently has 63,000 people paying in to the fund and 43,000 recipients, mainly government civil servants and employees at the federal institutes of technology. Last September the government revealed that federal investments in arms manufacturers amounted to CHF110 million, or 0.3% of the total fortune of the Publica state pension fund.

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2017 rank the universities that academics believe excel in teaching and research.

A questionnaire was sent to a selection of experienced published scholars, between January 2017 and March 2017, asking them to offer their views on the standards of teaching and research in their disciplines and in institutions that they are familiar with. The responses were then used to determine which universities were considered the most prestigious. The full methodology of the THE World Reputation Rankings can be found here.

Switzerland on Friday ratified the automatic exchange of financial account information with 40 other jurisdictions, among which are several emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico and Russia, to facilitate immediate sharing of details of suspected black money, even as it sought strict adherence to confidentiality and data security.

But before the exchange takes place, the government will now prepare a "situation report", it said in a statement.

"In the process, it will be checked whether the states and territories concerned effectively meet the requirements under the standard, especially those concerning confidentiality and data security," the government said.

Global private wealth gained momentum in 2016, but wealth managers face a host of challenges if they hope to fight off competitors, deepen client loyalty, and put both revenue and profit growth on a sustainable positive trajectory, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Switzerland remains the world’s No. 1 offshore wealth management hub with $2.4 trillion in assets, twice as much as Singapore’s, the report showed. BCG expects this number to rise to $2.8 trillion by 2021.

Mobile phone users in Europe will soon be free to use their regular call, text and internet allowances anywhere within the EU at no extra cost under new rules which abolish data roaming charges across the union.

As of Thursday June 15, all mobile network operators in Europe will be prohibited from charging additional fees for overseas use within the EU as part of continued efforts by the EU to forge a Digital Single Market across EU member states. It is free to use your phone in European countries as if you were at home. You will still pay your normal monthly or pay as you go bill, but you won’t be charged extra for using your minutes, texts and data when you’re on holiday.