Mountains decked in snow, chocolate box towns, watches that keep faultless time, banks that offer rock solid discretion and a centuries-old desire to keep a neutral stance in world affairs – Switzerland might seem rather staid at times.
But don’t let the image fool you. Come summertime it’s not unusual to find some of those supposedly rather reserved bankers swimming home from work in Berne down the Rhine while their colleagues in Zurich and Geneva are more likely to opt for the BMWs and Mercedes which are the outward sign of burgeoning prosperity in a country which after some rather stolid years has again started to experience dynamic, broad-based growth.
Though some might misread Switzerland’s neutrality as an aloof stance, the country has, in fact, a carefully nurtured position at the heart of international affairs.
The familiar red flag with a white cross did not flutter at the United Nations until 1992 and to this day Switzerland is a member of neither the EU nor NATO. However, right since the organisation’s foundation at the end of World War II, the Swiss lakeside city of Geneva has played host to the UN secretariat and the headquarters of most of its spin-off organisations.
Many other global bodies, from the International Red Cross, the International Labour Organisation, Medair, the Universal Postal Union, and the International Olympic Committee to the UCI (world cycling federation) have their main offices there while the country has given birth to some of the world’s most prominent multinational corporations, including Hoffmann-La Roche, Adecco, Glencore, Novartis, Zurich Assurance, ABB, Credit Suisse, Swatch, UBS AG and Nestlé – the world’s largest food manufacturer.
Switzerland’s economy is actually rated right now by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report as the most competitive in the world.
Having neatly side-stepped two world wars as a declared neutral, Switzerland was actually the wealthiest nation in Europe for much of the 20th Century and today it benefits from a stable modern market economy and boasts a nominal per capita GDP that is higher than those of the USA, Japan, Britain and France, standing in sixth place behind Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Iceland and Ireland.
At the turn of the millennium, Switzerland’s unemployment rate stood at a lowly 1.8 percent. That had slowly climbed to 3.9 percent by 2006 but dropped back to 3.3 percent during 2007.
This is reflected in growth rates which after being disappointing for more than a decade are now reaching 1990s dimensions, growing faster than its estimated potential rate of just under two percent for the past nine straight quarters.
What’s more, recently revised figures announced by the Swiss Federal Statistics Office for the period from 1990 through 2005 indicate that growth was actually significantly faster than had been gauged from the data released previously by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
Last year, the economy grew in real terms by some 3.2 percent.
Of course, there are some potential hiccups, not least the effects of the fall-out from America’s recent credit crisis. While debt aversion is likely to prevail, the financial markets in Switzerland are far from having battened down the hatches while the nation’s consumer consumption is driving the economy at a comfortable pace, showing 1.8 percent growth through 2007, with 1.6 percent predicted for 2008.
On the debit side, future budget surpluses are being pledged, in what is an election year, to such vote grabbing measures as the increased financing of federal pension funds, better disability insurance provision and other social welfare schemes.
With expectations of full order books in the coming months, industry has been investing in capital equipment but there is a continuing downturn of spending in the buildings sector.
No man is an island, nor can be a land-locked little country like Switzerland, which is truly dwarfed by next-door neighbours Germany, France and Italy.
External trade contnues to be a driving force of the Swiss economy and is expected to have shown a strong 8.3 percent growth over 2007 as a whole.
Inflation is running at around 0.5 percent, a factor unmatched since as far back as 1998.
Switzerland’s role as one of the world’s long-term successful economies seems set fair to continue for a long while to come – whether or not the EU membership the government is pushing for eventually gets approved by he electorate.
Switzerland’s innate stability has long been its greatest strength. The national motto is: “Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno” – Latin for “One for all, all for one”. There couldn’t be a more apt choice.
