Economic Expectations Back to Slightly Positive Assessment

The ZEW-CS-Indicator for the economic sentiment in Switzerland has risen by 8.4 points in March 2016 to a reading of 2.5 points. Thereby, the economic expectations reach a slightly positive balance. Still, a majority of 71.1 per cent of analysts expect economic growth in Switzerland to remain unchanged. 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 current economic situation in Switzerland is also mainly assessed to be “normal”. This view is shared by 92.1 per cent of the analysts surveyed. Overall, this means that the analysts’ have a neutral economic outlook for Switzerland.

Regarding potential growth drivers one should have a closer look at the analysts’ forecast for the Eurozone and for the US. For the Eurozone economic expectations declined by 12.0 points to 0.0 points in March. Analysts now expect neither improvement nor deterioration of the Eurozone economy. Expected US economic activity is also still restrained at a reading of 2.7 points. Hence, from the analysts’ point of view, we are unlikely to see any key growth drivers coming from the global economy for now.

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