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Facts and Figures |
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Economy |
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Language and Cultural Features |
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Section 2 |
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Direct Marketing |
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Postal Service |
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Customer Protection - Data Privacy |
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| Section 3 | |
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The Swiss Direct Marketing Association |
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Lists and Databases |
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Helping International Direct Marketers Succeed |
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(Source: Foreign Office, Spiegel yearbook 2003)
Switzerland is known all over the world for its high-quality products, particularly watches, cheese and chocolate. Tourism also plays a very important part in the Swiss economy, along with the financial and insurance sector.
According to Nationalbank 2001 estimates, Swiss gross domestic product at market prices was around 287 billion EUR in nominal terms and around 241 billion EUR in real terms (1990 prices). For 2001 this meant average annual growth of 1.3%, despite the worldwide decline in economic activity. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects growth to be no higher than about 1% in 2002.
After hitting a record high in 1997, the average unemployment rate fell from an average of 5.2% to 2.0% in 2000. The figure for 2001 was 1.9%.
In the first eight months of 2002, however, the unemployment rate rose again to 2.7%.
Ultimate consumer prices advanced by only approximately 0.8% in the first six months of 2002, following an increase of 1.2% in 2001. Wages in Switzerland rose by 1.3% in 2001. Average weekly working hours have remained unchanged since 1993 at 41.8 hours. Switzerland imported goods to the valued at 90 billion EUR in 2001, 32.2% of this from Germany; that is 4.3% more than in 2000. Next came France with an 11.0% share of imports, followed by Italy with 10.2%, the USA with 5.3% and the UK with 4.6%.
Swiss exports of goods in 2001 amounted to 90.6 billion EUR (2000: 87 billion EUR). The biggest customer was Germany at 22.2% (20.2 billion EUR), with a 4.1% increase in exports from the previous year, followed by the USA (10.6 %), France (9.0%), Italy (8.0%) and the UK (5.3%).
Source: PDMS, Foreign Office
Switzerland is very much internationally oriented and many people, especially the younger generation, speak more than one language, including English. The most widely used language in Switzerland, though, is German at around 72%. German is mainly spoken in the north, east and centre of Switzerland. Western Switzerland ranks second with a proportion of approximately 23% of French speakers, followed by the Italian-speaking south of the country with 4%. Last, with a minority share of just on 1%, is the Romansh- speaking area, in the south-east.
Source: Fedma
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| Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 |