The Swiss government on Wednesday agreed a package of measures worth around 890 million Swiss francs ($753 million) to revive the economy, which is seen slipping into a recession next year. "Switzerland is still currently in a comparatively good economic and employment situation, but due to global economic developments, the prospects have become noticeably more gloomy since September," the government said in a statement.
It said it was bringing forward about 340 million francs of spending in 2009 for projects including flood defence, natural disasters and energy efficiency. It said a second phase could be triggered if the economic situation had significantly worsened by the end of the first quarter of 2009, with total potential extra spending of up to 1 billion francs, including investment in roads and railways.
The government will also make about 550 million francs available to about 650 firms from January 1 in the form of tax breaks for job creation programmes. To boost exports, the government also wants to finalise free trade deals with Japan, Canada and the Gulf states in 2009 if possible.
It will also push for progress in trade negotiations with India, Thailand and Algeria and a start to talks with China and Russia. Recession fears are mounting in Switzerland as the global downturn and the strong Swiss franc hurt exports and banks wrestle with the credit crisis. That prompted the central bank to cut interest rates by half a percentage points last week and it has said the economy might even contract in 2009, compared with a 2008 growth forecast of 1.5-2 percent.
Swiss consumer confidence fell to its lowest in five years in October as concerns grew about personal finances and job security, data showed this week. Swiss unemployment also inched up in October for the first time since December 2007 as the financial crisis started to bite, data showed last week, but the seasonally adjusted rate was still relatively low at 2.6 percent.
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