ZEW-CS Financial Market Test Switzerland - Economic Expectations Continue to Worsen

The ZEW-CS Indicator for the economic sentiment in Switzerland has continued its decline in February 2016. Falling slightly by 2.9 points, the index now stands at minus 5.9 points. Accordingly, the respondents rather expect a slowdown in the Swiss economy. 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 monthly by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with Credit Suisse (CS), Zurich.

The majority of analysts (82.4 per cent) continues to assess the current economic situation in Switzerland to be "normal".

Expectations concerning the economic development in the eurozone run counter to those in the US. Regarding the assessment of the economic prospects for the eurozone, the sentiment has deteriorated considerably, with the indicator falling from 30.3 to 12.0 points. By contrast, the assessment of the economic situation in the US has improved considerably. Financial market experts’ sentiment concerning the economic expectations has improved from minus 9.0 to 9.1 points.

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".

For more information please contact

Dr. Lena Jaroszek (ZEW), 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