‘The strong Swiss franc is still a challenge for a very large number of companies.’ – Swissmem (based on Investing.com)
Data released on Tuesday revealed that the Swiss KOF leading indicator surged markedly over the month of February, pointing to better-than-expected growth in the country’s economy. The KOF Swiss Economic Institute reported the KOF index added 5.2 points in February, which is strongly above its long-term average, jumping to 107.2 from an upwardly revised reading of 102.0 registered in the preceding month. The upmove was mainly driven by the positive trend established in the manufacturing and hospitality sectors coupled with favourable signals from the financial, exporting and construction industries. Furthermore, the KOF said that the upgraded sentiment in manufacturing came mainly from paper, textile, architects and machine-building sectors, whilst other industries posted almost no change over the observed period. Apart from that, the report revealed the KOF had also revised upwards its confidence in the country’s manufacturing on the back of generally more optimistic assessment of incoming orders along with a positive outlook for production and employment. Overall, the KOF report suggested that the Swiss economy should expand at an above-average growth pace in the months to come.
