Switzerland has one of the most stable economies in the world. Its long-term policies, secure financial system and banking secrecy have made Switzerland a safe haven for tax-haven investors. Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world, with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, as well as low unemployment and fiscal deficits. The service sector also plays an increasingly important role in the Swiss economy, thanks to a well-developed financial sector.
Switzerland has a stable and technologically advanced economy, and in 2011 was the richest country in the world in terms of wealth per capita (both financial and non-financial assets). Switzerland is the world's 19th largest economy in terms of international exchange rates, 36th largest in terms of purchasing power parity, and 20th and 18th largest in terms of exports and imports respectively. Although the Swiss public sector is quite extensive, Switzerland still has the highest degree of economic freedom in Europe. Switzerland has a higher GDP per capita at international exchange rates than the major economies of Western and Central Europe and Japan, and is the 8th largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP).
The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report ranked Switzerland as the most competitive country in the world, and the European Union's report ranked Switzerland as the best innovator in Europe. Switzerland's GDP per capita has long been among the highest in Europe. In 2005, the median household income was CHF 96,500, and the current account as a percentage of GDP is one of the highest in the world.
Switzerland is home to the headquarters of many multinational corporations, with Vitol, Glencore, Gunvor, Trafigura, Nestlé, Novartis, Roche, ABB, Mercurial, and Decaux among the top Swiss companies in terms of turnover, as well as other well-known companies such as UBS, Zurich Financial Services, Credit Suisse, Tetra Pak, Pall Mallory, Swiss Re, and Schwarzkopf. Switzerland is also one of the most influential economies in the world.
Manufacturing is the most important industry in Switzerland, with the production of specialized chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical products, scientific and precision measuring instruments, and musical instruments. Major exports include chemicals (34%), machinery and electronic equipment (20.9%), precision instruments and clocks (16.9%). The service sector is another important industry in Switzerland, including banking, tourism, insurance and international organizations.
There are about 3.8 million people employed in Switzerland. The Swiss job market is more resilient than that of neighboring countries, and the unemployment rate is relatively low, although the Swiss unemployment rate rose from 1.7% in June 2000 to 4.4% in 2009. The foreign immigrant population in Switzerland was around 21.8% in 2004, about the same as in Australia. Switzerland has the 17th highest gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked in the world, at 27.44 international dollars per hour in 2006.
Switzerland has one of the more developed private sectors in the Western world with lower tax rates, and one of the lowest overall tax rates in the developed world. Switzerland ranks 26th out of 178 countries in terms of ease of doing business. Switzerland faced economic stagnation in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the European Union helped to reform and integrate the Swiss economy. According to Credit Suisse, only 37% of the Swiss population owns a home, the lowest rate in Europe. In 2007, housing and food prices in Switzerland were 171% and 145% of the EU-25 average, respectively, and about 113% and 104% of those in Germany.
Switzerland's agricultural protection policy is one of the few exceptions to the country's free-trade policy, and it also contributes to higher food prices. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reports that Switzerland's market is slightly less free than some European Union countries, but the country's domestic purchasing power is still among the highest in the world. With the exception of agriculture, trade barriers between European countries and Switzerland are quite low, and Switzerland has signed free trade agreements with countries around the world. Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association.
Switzerland is a highly developed industrial country. It pursues a liberal economic policy with minimal government intervention. The economy grew by 0.98% in 2012. Key economic figures for Switzerland in 2012 GDP $605.05 billion GDP real growth rate 1% inflation -0.7% GDP per capita $76,059 exchange rate $1 = 0.9782 CHF (October 2013) unemployment rate 2.9% Switzerland's main crops are wheat, oats, potatoes and sugar beet. It is largely self-sufficient in meat and self-sufficient in dairy products.
The value of agricultural output accounts for about 4% of GDP, and the number of people employed in agriculture accounts for about 6.6% of total employment in the country. The Swiss government has long attached considerable importance to the development of agricultural production. It has long implemented a policy of subsidies for agriculture, such as grants, special subsidies for mountainous areas, price subsidies for major agricultural products; restrictions and reductions on imports of vegetables and fruits; the provision of interest-free loans to farmers; support for the mechanization and specialization of agriculture; the strengthening of scientific research and technical training in agriculture; and the popularization of the importance of agricultural knowledge.
In 2012, 240,000 people were employed in agriculture, accounting for about 3.63% of total employment. Industry is the mainstay of the Swiss national economy, with industrial output accounting for about 50% of GDP. The main industrial sectors in Switzerland include: watches and clocks, machinery, chemicals, food and other sectors. The watch industry is Switzerland's third largest export industry. As one of the world's largest watch producers, Switzerland has many world-renowned watch brands, with wristwatches as the main product, as well as table clocks and pendulum clocks. More than 95% of the watches produced in Switzerland each year are exported. In 2013, exports amounted to CHF 21.4 billion, accounting for 10.6% of Switzerland's total exports. The machinery manufacturing industry mainly produces textile machinery and power generation equipment. Machine tools, precision instruments, meters, transportation machinery, agricultural machinery, chemical machinery, food machinery, printing machinery is also very important, in recent years, typewriters, computers, cameras and movie cameras production development is very rapid. The products of the food industry are mainly for domestic needs, but cheese, chocolate, instant coffee and espresso food also enjoys a good reputation in the world, so Switzerland is also the Kingdom of Chocolate. The chemical industry is also an important pillar of Swiss industry. Pharmaceuticals account for about 2/5 of the output value of the chemical industry, and dyes, pesticides, balsams and flavors are also important in the international market.
The vast majority of Swiss companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the exception of well-known large companies such as ABB, Nestle, Novartis and Sulzer.
In 2012, about 1.44 million people were employed in industry, accounting for 21.85% of total employment. Swiss bank secrecy
Bank secrecy for clients means that the bank fulfills an obligation to remain silent on all matters concerning the client. It is also a right of the customer, as they are the owners of the data and information that is protected. Bank secrecy protects the client's private interests. The protection of private rights and interests is the basis of Swiss law and is expressly enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
The 17th century saw a major development in Swiss banking. A large number of wealthy people and banking-savvy managers arrived in Geneva from France and Italy. The money and technology they brought with them enabled Geneva's banking industry to grow by leaps and bounds in a short period of time. At the same time, in order to avoid disclosure of these people's assets, Swiss banks began to develop a tradition of protecting the privacy of private accounts. 1713, the Geneva Parliament enacted a banking law, which stipulated that bankers had a duty to record their clients' information, but were forbidden to disclose their information to others.
In order to protect the safety of bank customers, and also to prevent the loss of customers, the Swiss government promulgated the Federal Banking Act in 1934, the Swiss bank secrecy system was formally established. The law provides that any depositor may choose to open an account with a Swiss bank in a manner that he or she deems appropriate and safe, and that depositors are permitted to use aliases, code names, or numbers in lieu of their real names. Not only can the account be opened and deposited by proxy, but when withdrawals or transfers are made, the bank will do so in accordance with the terms of the agreement with the customer, and the true owner of the property can never be seen. The law also requires banks to strictly observe the principle of confidentiality, and under no circumstances may a bank employee disclose a depositor's secret to a third party, whether private or official. In the event of a breach, both the bank employee and the third party who induced him or her to disclose the information face a prison sentence of between six months and five years, as well as a fine of up to 50,000 Swiss francs. Confidentiality agreements are valid for life and expire when a bank employee leaves, retires or is dismissed.
The end of secrecy
Swiss bank secrecy in its attraction to a large number of foreign deposits at the same time, but also exposed the lack of transparency, objectively for tax evasion and money laundering and other criminal activities to facilitate. Switzerland and the same adhere to the tradition of bank secrecy Austria, Luxembourg and other countries have been criticized by the outside world, long known as Europe's tax haven.
U.S. pressure
On Feb. 19, 2009, under intense U.S. pressure, UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, compromised in order to avoid being prosecuted by the U.S. and was forced to pay a hefty $780 million in fines to the U.S. and to provide information on 250 to 300 U.S. clients.
On February 20, 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice then made a new demand that Switzerland redefine its banking secrecy laws and demanded that UBS hand over all of its 52,000 U.S. customers' full information.
In early 2013, Wegelin Bank, Switzerland's oldest private bank, was forced to close its doors and cease operations under heavy pressure.
In September 2013, amid controversy, the Swiss Federal Assembly approved a bilateral agreement signed late last year between Switzerland and the United States to allow U.S. tax authorities to collect income tax on U.S. citizen accounts in Swiss banks; Switzerland will also implement an automatic exchange of bank information to make U.S. citizen accounts available to U.S. tax authorities.
European countries dissatisfaction
Switzerland's neighbors, such as France, Germany and Italy, because of their own high personal income tax system to maintain the welfare system, the rich people tend to deposit their money in Swiss banks, as a way to avoid their own high taxes. This has caused strong resentment in these countries. EU countries such as Germany, France, the UK, Spain and Italy have proposed to implement automatic exchange of banking information within the EU as well to ensure that all EU citizens pay fair taxes on their entire income. In the face of strong pressure from the EU powers, Luxembourg and Austria have compromised by agreeing to increase bank transparency and relax bank secrecy. Under these circumstances, it is only a matter of time before Switzerland's proud tradition of bank secrecy is retired from the history books.
On October 15, 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced that the Swiss government signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters (Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters) in Paris, France, on the same day, making Switzerland the 58th signatory to the Convention.
The signing of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters by the Swiss government sends a clear and strong signal that Switzerland will work with the international community to strengthen tax cooperation. The signing of this convention is an important step forward in international tax cooperation and signals the end of Swiss bank secrecy. The global trend to step up the fight against cross-border tax evasion is now irreversible.
On May 6, 2014, at the meeting of European finance ministers in Paris, Switzerland agreed to sign a new global standard on the automatic exchange of information. It was a decisive move, symbolizing that Switzerland's centuries-old insistence on protecting the privacy of its banking customers will henceforth be a thing of the past.
Switzerland*** has 312 banks and 3,382 outlets, with total assets of about 2.8 trillion Swiss francs and total assets under management amounting to a whopping about 5.3 trillion Swiss francs, of which domestic and offshore assets account for 49 percent and 51 percent, respectively. A survey predicts that between 25% and 30% of all private banks in Switzerland may fail between 2014 and 2016. As of December 2012, Switzerland has four official languages, German, French, Italian and Latin Romance, with about 65.6% of the population speaking German, 22.8% French, 8.4% Italian, 0.6% Latin Romance and 18.7% other languages.
The most widely spoken language in Switzerland is German. 17 of the 26 cantons are German-speaking. The western part of the country is predominantly French-speaking, with four French-speaking cantons: Geneva, Jura, Neuchatel and Vaud. There are 3 bilingual German-French cantons: Bern, Fribourg and Valais. New Year's Day: January 1 every year
Good Friday
Easter (Monday)
Labor Day: May 1 every year
Nativity (Monday)
Day of the Holy Spirit
Day of the Death of Jesus
Fourth of July: August 1 every year after 1291
Christmas: December 25 every year
Boxing Day: December 26 every year Switzerland's Bandera, an extremely popular local lyrical performance group, has been a local sensation since the release of its first album in 1990, with its unconventional arrangements and streamlined instrumentation, giving each piece a fresh, natural vibe.
Bandera Music is a New Age group under the umbrella of Swiss music company Audio Video Kommunications AG. Its work is mainly ambient, with some adaptations of American and European country music, and a fair amount of reprises of well-known tunes.
The Alpine TromboneThe Alpine trombone was originally used by Alpine herders to summon their herds and deliver messages, and has a documented history of more than 500 years. The 3 to 4 meter long, 4 kilogram wooden horn has become a representative of Swiss mountain culture.
The International Alpine Trombone Festival and Competition is held every year in the town of Nanda in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. Located in southwestern Switzerland, in the heart of the Alps, the annual festival is an important cultural event in Nanda, Valais, and has made the town famous abroad. At the festival, most of the participants dressed in traditional national costumes, some soloists, some repertoire, some whole families, played a melodious and touching music with the unique sound of the Alpine trombone. The sound of the horns echoing through the valleys is so refreshing that the results of the competition seem less important. Education receives a large share of the budget at all levels of government (8% of the federal government's budget and about 25% of state and municipal budgets). Education is compulsory throughout the country for nine years. Swiss education is characterized by: universal lower secondary education; a small proportion of upper secondary schools and a large proportion of vocational schools; and high quality university teaching.
The Swiss Confederation does not have a ministry of education, and education affairs at the federal level are the responsibility of the Federal Commission on the Higher Education System and the Federal Department of Education under the Ministry of the Interior's Science and Research Leadership Group, supplemented by the Joint Meeting of Universities, the Joint Meeting of University Presidents, the Joint Meeting of Cantonal Directors of Education, the Swiss Center for Higher Education, and other national coordinating bodies; vocational education in the whole country is managed by the Federal Department of Vocational Education and Technology of the Ministry of the National Economy. Vocational education is managed by the Federal Department of Vocational Education and Technology of the Ministry of National Economy.
Though Switzerland has a small population, it has a dense network of higher education institutions. There are 12 national public universities, of which two, the Federal Polytechnic Institute of Zurich (ETH Zurich) and the Federal Polytechnic Institute of Lausanne (ETH Lausanne), are under federal control, while the other 10 are cantonal universities. By language of the universities, there are six in the German-speaking region: the University of Basel (21st in the 101-200 segment of the latest 2013 QS World University Rankings), the University of Bern, the University of Zurich, the Federal Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, the University of St. Gallen, and the University of Luzern; five in the French-speaking region: the University of Geneva, the University of Lausanne, the Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne, the University of Neuchatel, and the University of Fribourg; and in the Italian-speaking region one university.
Switzerland began a reform of higher education in 1993, the decision to merge the country's more than 60 advanced vocational and technical schools into seven higher vocational colleges on a regional basis, which was completed in 1998, the seven colleges **** 18,000 students. This reform will increase the proportion of the Swiss population with a higher education diploma from the previous 22% to 25%. Switzerland has a globally developed public*** healthcare system, with highly qualified medical specialists and clinics and medical institutions using state-of-the-art medical technology. A well-developed hospital system provides medical care for everyone. The Swiss public **** health system is divided into two main parts: the health departments of the federal and cantonal governments, and various medical institutions.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), total national healthcare expenditure in Switzerland was 11% of GDP in 2011, with per capita healthcare expenditure of US$5,673 in purchasing power parity (PPP).Between 2006 and 2013, there was an average of 40 doctors, 174 nursing and midwifery staff, 6 dentists and 6 pharmacists per 10,000 people. Switzerland is not a sports powerhouse, but the average Swiss person has a very high level of sports, and it is quite normal for each person to have a hobby in three to five sports. Due to its location at the foot of the Alps, the mountains are always covered in snow, so the Swiss are particularly fond of winter sports such as skiing. There are also some very good competitors in their country.
Tennis and winter sports are Switzerland's strengths. Two of the best tennis players, Martina Hingis and Roger Federer, are Swiss. Federer is the best tennis player in the history of men's tennis.
In soccer, Switzerland blew away the heavily favored favorites, Spain, 1-0 in the first match of the group stage of the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.
In the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Switzerland managed to reach the round of 16 thanks to the outstanding performance of Shaqiri and others.
In the group stage of the 2013-2014 UEFA Champions League, Swiss Super League champions Basel doubled up on Premier League giants Chelsea.
In the group stage of the 2014-2015 UEFA Champions League season, Basel eliminated English Premier League giants Liverpool in an away draw. A number of scientists in Swiss academia have won Nobel Prizes, such as Albert Einstein for establishing special relativity during his time in Berne; more recent winners in the sciences have included Vladimir Prelog, Heinrich Lorel, Reichard Ernst, Edmund Fisher, Rolf Sinclair, Kurt Wittrich, and others, and of all the Nobel Prize winners in all fields, 113 have a Swiss The General **** of International Organizations based in Switzerland has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize nine times.
The world's largest particle physics laboratory, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), is located in the western part of Geneva, on the border with Ontario, France. The Paul Scherr Institute is an important national research institute in Switzerland. Some of the more famous Swiss inventions include the ergot diethylamide, the scanning tunneling microscope, and the devil's felt.
The Swiss space agency, the Swiss Space Agency, is involved in space science and technology and the space program. Switzerland is one of the ten founding members of the European Space Agency (ESA) and is the main financier of the ESA. Swiss companies such as Oerlikon Space and Mackenzie Motors are involved in spacecraft construction. There is one news agency: Swisscom.
There are 79 newspapers in the country, with three German-language newspapers being the most influential:
Neue Züricher Zeigung (New Zurich Newspaper): Founded in 1780 and based in Zurich, it has a daily circulation of more than 160,000 copies.
Tagsanzeiger: founded in 1893, with a daily circulation of over 200,000 in Zurich.
Blick: founded in 1959, Zurich, daily circulation of more than 320,000 copies.
The three French-language newspapers with a greater impact are:
The Times: founded in February 1998, formerly the Geneva Gazette and Le Nouvelle Journal, based in Geneva, with a daily circulation of 90,000 copies.
The 24 Hours: founded in 1762, based in Lausanne, with a daily circulation of 90,000 copies.
The Tribune de Genève: founded in 1879, based in Geneva, with a daily circulation of 80,000 copies.
Ringier AG, founded in 1883, is Switzerland's largest integrated media group, headquartered in Zurich.
Radio and television broadcasting is available in all language regions in their own languages. The Swiss Radio and Television Corporation (SRG), headquartered in Bern and launched in 1997, enjoys a federal broadcasting concession and is responsible for producing and broadcasting radio and television programs in the four official languages. Radio Suisse International (RSI) produces programs in the official languages as well as in English, Spanish and Arabic, and transmits them abroad via shortwave radio and satellite.