Swiss Retail Sales Rise, Unemployment Rate Unexpectedly Falls
February 08, 2010, 5:30 AM ESTBy Fergal O’Brien
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Swiss retail sales rose and unemployment unexpectedly declined as the economy continued to strengthen.
Retail sales, adjusted for inflation and shopping days, rose 4.7 percent in December from a year earlier after falling 0.1 percent in November, the Federal Statistics Office in Neuchatel, Switzerland, said today. A separate report showed that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate slipped to 4.1 percent in January from 4.2 percent in December.
Swiss manufacturing growth accelerated in January and consumer confidence rose to the highest in almost two years, adding to the economy’s momentum after it emerged from a recession in the third quarter. The expiry of global stimulus packages may curtail demand for Swiss exports and keep payroll growth in check.
“We expect that subdued employment growth will remain the dark side of the current recovery,” said Julien Manceaux, an economist at ING Group in Brussels. “Switzerland should nevertheless still grow at a healthy pace in 2010,” he said, forecasting expansion of “at least” 1.5 percent this year.
The unadjusted jobless rate rose to 4.5 percent this month from 4.4 percent in December. The number of unemployed rose to 175,765 from 172,740, on an unadjusted basis.
--Editors: Jeffrey Donovan, Andrew Atkinson
To contact the reporter on this story: Fergal O’Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Fraher at jfraher@bloomberg.net
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