ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s economy will pick up more steam in coming months, helped by domestic consumption and the euro zone’s emergence from recession, the country’s leading indicator showed on Friday.
The KOF barometer, a gauge of the economy’s performance in about six months’ time, rose to 1.85 points in November from a revised 1.71 points in October, the highest since July 2011. That was slightly below the forecast of 1.88 in a Reuters poll.
“Overall, the positive tendencies dominate” in a mixed broader picture, the KOF institute said in a statement.
The health of the economy underscores the success of the Swiss National Bank’s 1.20 per euro lid on the Swiss franc, a measure it introduced in 2011 to stave off the risk of deflation and recession.
Private consumption, buoyed by low unemployment, has helped support Swiss growth, even though the debt crisis in the euro zone – Switzerland’s biggest trading partner – sapped demand for exports.
Swiss consumers are still buying and an improved euro zone economy will help Switzerland’s industrial and manufacturing sector, KOF said. But momentum in the construction and financial sectors is slowing.
The SNB, which holds its next policy meeting on Dec 12, forecast in September that the economy would grow 1.5 to 2.0 percent this year.
(Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by Larry King)
Swiss economy to pick up steam in coming months, KOF shows
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