Expectations Deteriorate Significantly

Economic expectations for Switzerland continued to diminish significantly in October. The ZEW-CS Indicator dropped by 22.4 points, dipping into very negative territory at minus 27.5 points. 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.

Besides the decline of economic sentiment it should be noted that the indicator for the assessment of the current economic situation gained further 4.0 points this month and is now hovering at the 45 mark. Still, expectations regarding the interest rate environment declined again on the heels of the increase in the previous month, with 75 percent of the surveyed analysts (+21.2 percentage points) anticipating that short-term rates will hold steady at the current low levels over the coming six months.