ZEW-CS Financial Market Test Switzerland - Economic Expectations Return to Positive Territory

Economic expectations for Switzerland have climbed from their January reading of minus 6.9 points to a level of 10.0 points in February 2013. The ZEW-CS Indicator reaches its highest value since June 2010 due to this upward movement. 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.

Due to the 16.9 points improvement the indicator has reached positive ground for the first time since April 2012.  The reviving optimism is reflected by the rising share of analysts who expect the Swiss economic outlook to improve over the next six months. Their share has increased by 14.4 percentage points thus amounting to 28.0 per cent.

In February financial analysts’ assessments of the current economic environment in Switzerland have remained stable compared to the previous month. The indicator has reached the 18.0 points-mark. A majority of 78.0 per cent of the surveyed analysts has evaluated the current economic environment as “normal” and 20.0 per cent have even assessed the situation as “good”.

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