ZEW-CS Financial Market Test Switzerland - Economic Expectations Brighten Up

The ZEW-CS-Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Switzerland brightens up by 1.3 points to the 53.8 mark in March. This reveals the current Financial Market Test Switzerland, carried out monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with Credit Suisse (CS).

At the same time, analysts conveyed a noticeably more optimistic assessment of the current economic situation, with the corresponding indicator surging by 33.1 points to the minus 2.6 level and thus hitting its highest point since October 2008. 74.4 percent of the surveyed financial market experts continue to forecast a prevailing unchanged interest rate environment on a six-month horizon. However, 20.5 percent of respondents already predict higher short-term rates for the same timeframe. Inflation expectations diminish once again in March, with the relevant balance dropping significantly by 28.5 points and reaching the 2.5 threshold.

Sentiment among the financial analysts toward the Swiss stock market continues to dampen in March. Although 59.5 of the respondents (down 11.2 percentage points compared to the previous month) still predict that the Swiss Market Index (SMI) will gain terrain in the next six months, in the meantime 24.3 percent (up 9.6 percentage points) see the SMI stabilising at the present level. 16.2 percent of the questioned analysts (up 1.6 percentage points compared to the previous month) foresee the index losing ground.

For further information please contact

Dr. Gunnar Lang (ZEW), Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-372, E-mail: lang@zew.de

Fabian Heller (Credit Suisse), Phone: +41/44/3329061, E-mail: fabian.heller@credit-suisse.com