April

The KOF Economic Barometer for April points to an almost stable economic development. It has risen minimally, by 0.2 points, to 105.3 points. Although the Barometer currently does not reach the positive values seen at the turn of the year 2017/2018, the current value is clearly above long-term average. The Swiss economic outlook remains favourable.

The KOF MPC figure for 26 April 2018 is 0.06. Despite some signs of moderation in the economic expansion, the ECB confirmed its confidence that inflation rates will converge towards the ECB’s inflation aim.

Germany’s leading economic experts and their international cooperation partners raised their forecasts for 2018 and 2019 for the German economy slightly in their Spring Joint Economic Forecast released on Thursday in Berlin. They now expect economic growth of 2.2 per cent for this year and 2.0 per cent for 2019, versus 2.0 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively in their autumn forecast.

The Swiss electorate will be voting on 10 June 2018 on the popular initiative “For Crisis-proof Money: Money Creation only by the Swiss National Bank!” (Sovereign Money Initiative). In collaboration with SRF, KOF asked research economists in Switzerland what they think of the initiative. While the majority of survey respondents reject this proposal, they concede that there is need for action when it comes to financial stability.