Swiss manufacturing sector helps economic growth in Q1
Switzerland saw its economy grow by 0.4% in the first quarter of the year, its government has announced.
It attributes a lot of this growth to the recovery that its manufacturing sector has enjoyed — it grew by 1.5% after several quarters of flat/negative growth — on the back of the punitive US tariffs being relaxed at the end of last year and start of this.
In particular, manufacturing segments like machinery, metals, and watches were cited as strong performers.
It puts the quarterly growth rate back in line with its long-term trend line and is an improvement on the 0.2% growth that it saw in the final quarter of last year.
“There has been an uptick in exports, especially to the US, though performance has varied across sectors,” said economist Philipp Wegmueller from State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), which puts together the data on the Swiss economy.
“Firms are treating the current headwinds as a temporary shock,” he said, in reference to geopolitical events, especially in the Middle East. “Overall growth remains solid. Still, the environment remains subject to considerable uncertainty.”
