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Consequently, the unemployment rate is also likely to rise less sharply than previously feared. With the relaxation of health policy measures, the Swiss economy began to recover rapidly at the end of April, the Secretary of State for the Economy (Seco) announced on Monday. Both consumer and investment demand beat expectations in the second quarter. And short-time work was used significantly less than expected in June.
Specifically, the federal think tank still expects real gross domestic product (GDP) to collapse by 3.8 percent in the current year 2020 compared to the previous year. In the latest official June forecast, federal economists were still assuming less than 6.2 percent. However, about a month ago, the Seco raised this forecast a bit to “around -5%”.
Shortly after the lockdown in mid-March, a much steeper decline was expected. At the end of April, for example, while he was still locked up, La Seco had meant a 6.7 percent drop in GDP.
The outlook for the labor market has also improved significantly in recent months. Unemployment is expected to average 3.2 percent in 2020, after a 3.8 percent figure was forecast in June. However, Seco had already indicated an adjustment to the forecast here a month ago and declared a value below 3.5 percent.
