Economic Expectations Cede Last Month's Gains

In May 2013 the ZEW-CS Indicator of economic expectations for Switzerland falls by 17.8 points to a level of 2.2 points. Thereby, last month's significant gains are lost and the indicator falls back to the level of March 2013. The ZEW-CS Indicator is calculated monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with Credit Suisse (CS). The indicator reflects the expectations of the surveyed financial market experts regarding the economic development in Switzerland on a six-month time horizon.

The share of analysts who foresee economic conditions to deteriorate over the next six months increases in the current survey for the first time since September 2012. It rises noticeably by 10.0 percentage points and now amounts to 20.0 per cent.

Other indicators of this month's survey likewise paint a bleaker picture regarding the economic development in Switzerland on a six month time horizon compared to April. Expectations towards Swiss exports pulled back.

The balance of export expectations declines from a solid level of 21.0 points in April to negative territory of minus 2.5 points in May. Future development of unemployment is also judged more pessimistic. 34.1. per cent (+3.3 percentage points) of respondents project that Switzerland's unemployment rate will increase, and no one foresees an improvement.

The assessment of the current economic situation improves mildly. The respective indicator increases by 5.0 points reaching a level of 20.0 points. By now, 80.0 per cent of analysts rate the present economic situation as "normal". None of the participants regards it to be "bad".