Switzerland

The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) policy of negative interest rates is not ideal but is nevertheless necessary in order to weaken Switzerland’s "significantly overvalued" currency, Chairman Thomas Jordan said on the sidelines of the Private Banking Day in Zurich on Thursday. "It’s not the case that we find it great to have negative interest rates," Jordan said during conference.

However, Jordan said negative interest rates, along with the central bank’s willingness to intervene in the currency were absolutely necessary in order to protect exporters from a stronger Swiss franc, which is a safe-haven currency in times of market stress. Those conditions will largely be dictated from abroad, particularly by the European Central Bank (ECB). He stressed Swiss monetary policy was a hostage to weak economic conditions in some EU states, which prompted the ECB to print trillions of euros and move euro interest rates into negative territory.

Richemont reported worse-than-expected results shortly before Friday’s open as the Geneva-based company said a volatile trading environment had caused its net profits to slip more than anticipated. However, the world’s second-largest luxury goods group noted an uptick in sales growth towards the end of its fiscal year, in large part attributable to easier comparisons and support from a sustainable recovery in mainland China, Reuters reported.

Sales at Richemont fell 4 percent at constant exchange rates in the year to March, missing expectations in a Reuters poll of analysts, but with a clear improvement in the second half thanks to a recovery in the United States and strong growth in China.

At a meeting last week, CPEG, the pension fund for the Swiss canton of Geneva, has unveiled a set of structural measures to improve its funding level that could have the effect of cutting future pension benefits by up to 15%. The committee which manages the CHF12bn (€11bn) fund (employee, pensioner, and employer representatives) confirmed a plan to raise the age at which members can take a full pension from 64 to 65 as of 1 January 2018.

In the same occasion, it released the decision to lower the target pension level. The pension fund said this measure would be accompanied by other technical measures of less importance, but the cumulative effect could be a lowering of pension benefits by up to 15% for active members.

Zurich Insurance Group referred its profit fell from a year earlier in the first quarter, but added that an improved economic outlook could help the company’s prospects for the rest of the year.

The Swiss insurer said net income fell to $607 million in the first quarter from $875 million a year earlier. A more than 3 percent change to Britain’s Ogden rate, a tool for calculating personal injury and accident claims, dampened Zurich’s core property and casualty business in the first three months of 2017.

Switzerland will limit Bulgarian and Romanian citizens’ access to the Swiss labour market for the next 12 months, the government said on Wednesday, as it seeks to slow increased migration from those two countries since last year, Reuters reported.

The number of five-year "B" residence permits for people coming from the two countries will be fixed at 996: the decision would be due to the threshold of workers from those countries taking largely seasonal jobs had been exceeded between June 2016 and May 2017.

The Swiss National Bank unveiled the second note in its new banknote series on Wednesday. The new 20 franc note, which will be in circulation from May 17th, follows the release of the first in the series, the 50 franc note, last year.
Overall, the National Bank’s new series of banknotes is intended to reflect “the many facets of Switzerland”. The design of each note centers around a primary theme. On the 20-franc note, this will be light. A hand, the earth and butterflies are the main motifs on the note.

Swiss Life had a «good start» to the year 2017, with fee revenue of 340 million Swiss francs, an increase of 5% compared with the same period a year ago. Premiums dropped 1% to 6.5 billion francs, the company said in a statement today. Five analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected gross premiums to fall 1.3 percent to 6.595 billion francs.
"Swiss Life has made a good start to the year," Chief Financial Officer Thomas Buess said in a statement. "We also managed to increase fee income and assets under management in the first quarter of 2017. That shows we are continuing our progress toward implementing our group-wide program ‘Swiss Life 2018’."

The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) reported Tuesday that 3.3 percent of Switzerland’s working population was jobless in April, down from 3.4 percent in March 2017.
According to latest figures, 5,953 fewer people were unemployed last month, with 146,327 men and women classified as such by local authorities in the period under review.