Switzerland Economic Forecast

Switzerland has a free market economy, one that has long been rich and stable. The workforce within this country is extremely skilled and for the Gross Domestic Product per capita, this country ranks as one of the highest in the world. The strongest sector for Switzerland is services, specifically in connection to financial services but the industrial manufacturing sector is also relatively strong primarily for high technology and production of knowledge based goods.

Switzerland has a free market economy, one that has long been rich and stable. The workforce within this country is extremely skilled and for the Gross Domestic Product per capita, this country ranks as one of the highest in the world. The strongest sector for Switzerland is services, specifically in connection to financial services but the industrial manufacturing sector is also relatively strong primarily for high technology and production of knowledge based goods.

Because Switzerland’s economy has been strong for such a long time, it has shared many of its practices with the European Union. As far as foreign investors, this country remains one in which investors are confident having maintained strong value for the Franc and sustaining bank secrecy. Even with its strength, Switzerland experienced some downturn during the 2008 world financial crisis with some of the larger financial institutions and banks being hit relatively hard. Even so, a zero-rate policy recently initiated has already begun to get the economy back on track.

Switzerland GDP Forecast

Numerous things have helped Switzerland sustain a strong economy over the years, one being a significant entrepreneurial environment. Other areas of the economic structure allowing this country to get through tough times where other countries struggled includes having a low average tariff rate, flexible labor market, stable inflationary pressures, easy access to different sources of credit, low corruption rate, and very little government intervention. In looking at the Switzerland GDP (Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices, US Dollars) reported in 2008, numbers were at $500.26 billion in US dollars. While the next 12 months saw some decline, 2009 still closed at $494.622 billion, putting the country at number 19 worldwide. For the future, experts are forecasting that 2010’s GDP will increase to $512.07 billion and for 2015, numbers are expected to go even higher to $541.778 billion in US dollars.

Switzerland Unemployment Forecast

Although a smaller country, the Switzerland population is still just over 7.6 million. Of those people, 4.08 million are currently employed with the majority working in the services sector, followed by the industry sector and some in agriculture. Because of a flexible work market and incredible job opportunities, the Switzerland unemployment rate remains low at 3.7%.

Switzerland Inflation Rate Forecast

For the Switzerland inflation rate, an index of 2000=100 is used to help determine average consumer prices. In 2008, this rate was reported at 2.43%, followed by a significant reduction of 118.37% over the following year. With this, 2009 closed with a rate of minus 0.446%, putting the country at number 164 for world rankings. As far as the future, it is predicted that the inflation rate for 2010 will be at 0.66% and by 2015, only a slight change will be seen, closing the year at 1%.

Switzerland Current Account Balance Forecast

To determine the future Switzerland current account balance, experts look at historical data and all transactions except those containing capital and financial items. By close of 2008, the account balance was at $11.95 billion in US dollars. Then by 2009, the numbers increased dramatically to $43.102 billion, an increase of 260.78%. As far as the current account balance for 2010 and 2015, experts predict $48.87 billion and $64.349 billion, also reported in US currency.