ZEW-CS Financial Market Test Switzerland - Economic Expectations Remain Stable

In July 2013 economic expectations for Switzerland increased slightly by 2.6 points. Accordingly, the ZEW-CS Indicator of economic expectations reached the 4.8-pointsmark. The economic sentiment indicator for Switzerland has thus remained at a low but stable level for the last three months. The ZEW-CS Indicator is calculated monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with Credit Suisse (CS). The indicator reflects the expectations of the surveyed financial market experts regarding the economic development in Switzerland on a six-month time horizon.

Compared to the previous month, more analysts expect the Swiss economy to remain unchanged over the next six months. In this month’s survey the share of analysts who predict economic conditions to remain stable increases to 71.4 percentage points (+8.4 percentage points).

The assessment of the current economic situation in Switzerland  improved by 4.5 points in July. Thereby, the respective indicator currently hovers at a level of 26.2 points. By this month’s increase the June reading of the indicator, which was the highest reading since August 2011, is exceeded. The assessment of the current economic situation for Switzerland stands in clear contrast to the evaluation for the Eurozone, as 80.5 per cent of experts (+4.9 percentage points) assess the Eurozone’s economic situation as “bad”.

Expectations for the stock markets in Switzerland, Europe and the US are positive. In July, the respective indicators hover well above their long-term averages (calculated based on the entire time series since the launch of the survey). The analysts’ optimism seems to be greatest for European equities. Here, the balance is currently 16.4 per cent above the long-term average.

For further information please contact

Lena Jaroszek (ZEW), Phone +49 621/1235-380, E-mail jaroszek@zew.de

Maxime Botteron (CS), Phone +41 443329061, E-mail maxime.botteron@credit-suisse.com