#swiss-economy

#swiss-economy

Europe is our most important trading partner,

The sum of exports and imports between the two countries last year totalled 251.8 billion (roughly $296.6 billion), a 2.1% increase, according to Destatis. China was Germany's most important trading partner from 2016 all the way through to 2023. In 2024, the US briefly held the title. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is also set to visit China next week, where he is set to discuss trade and other topics.

UBS Group AG is preparing to offer bitcoin trading to a select group of private banking clients in Switzerland. According to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, the Swiss banking giant has been in discussions for several months about launching a cryptocurrency trading offering and is currently in the process of selecting external partners. The service would initially be limited to a small subset of Swiss private banking clients, with a broader rollout possible at a later stage.

Dozens are dead, and more than 100 are injured after a deadly fire at a ski resort in the Swiss Alps. Many of the dead are believed to be young men and women. They were celebrating the new year at a bar that caught fire. Switzerland's President Guy Parmelin has called the incident one of the worst tragedies in the country's history.

We begin with a deliberately ambitious question. What would it take for every person on Earth to live at least as well as someone in Switzerland does today-by 2100? Not culturally Swiss, but economically empowered with high incomes, long lives, strong education, and social cohesion. Achieving this would require global GDP to be about 8.5 times higher than it is today. That figure alone is enough to trigger skepticism. Will we have enough energy, materials, food, and innovation?

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to do some damage control. It doesn't appear to be working yet. Understanding what's happening with the dollar now traces back to early 2025, when the greenback hit a multi-year high relative to other currencies just days before Trump's return to the White House. The dollar has tumbled 10% since, a victim of the "Sell America" trade that first came into vogue after Trump announced sweeping tariff plans last April.

Aki Ito is our chief correspondent on careers, a huge topic for Davos - and for us. She asked people across business tough questions about the future of work (believe me, I was in the room) to help bring insights for your success. She also moderated a conversation with chief people officers from companies across the business world. You'll see her takeaways from that soon.

Policy-makers are being urged to focus on investments in artificial intelligence (AI) in a way that makes sense for the economy. The Rethinking AI sovereignty paper, published to coincide with the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, recommends that policy-makers reframe AI sovereignty as strategic interdependence, where localised investments are combined with trusted partnerships and alliances. The paper, co-authored by the World Economic Forum and Bain & Co, presents data that illustrates the gap between AI infrastructure investment in the US and China compared with other countries.

In an incisive analysis of the new age of predatory great powers, where might is increasingly asserted as right, Carney not only accurately defined the coarsening of international relations as a rupture, not a transition. He also outlined how liberal democratic middle powers such as Canada but also European countries must build coalitions to counter coercion and defend as much as possible of the principles of territorial integrity, the rule of law, free trade, climate action and human rights.

After more than 25 years of debate and delay, we have moved beyond words and into action. This commission is not just a technical body; it is a commitment to historical integrity and a long-awaited bridge to justice for those whose heritage was stolen.

World leaders, rattled by Donald Trump's latest gambit in Greenland, look to present a united front at the World Economic Forum. As world leaders, including allies of the United States, gather in the Swiss resort city of Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), US President Donald Trump's attacks on the existing global world order have been on the top of their minds with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney saying the US-led global system is enduring a rupture.

Standing among the Alps, it's easy to believe that they will last forever. They seem too big to fail, too old to change. This illusion of permanence has long entranced travelers who have visited to experience the intoxicating feeling of being daunted and dwarfed by a landscape's authority. But even mountains move: This past May an avalanche of ice and rock tore through the Lötschental Valley, erasing the village of Blatten in less than a minute.

At first, it sounds almost too simple like someone claiming they've solved European immigration with nothing more than a calendar and a backpack. But this little pattern, when used intentionally and legally, becomes one of the most elegant travel strategies in the world. It lets you stay in Europe far longer than any tourist visa seems to allow, all without breaking rules, overstaying, or navigating complicated immigration systems.

Business Insider is on the ground at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, and we want to take you along with us.

The meeting, held from 19 to 23 January under the theme "A Spirit of Dialogue," took place at a time when the global situation still feels uncomfortable. Inflation has eased in some places, but not enough to make central banks relaxed. Growth is holding in parts of the world and slowing in others. Debt remains high, and trade has become more political.

Authorities in Crans-Montana have said the bar that caught fire in the Swiss ski resort on New Year's Eve, killing 40 mainly young partygoers and injuring more than 100, had not been inspected by safety officers for the past five years. Periodic inspections were not conducted between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this, the mayor of the town, Nicolas Feraud, told a press conference in the town on Tuesday, five days after the disaster at Le Constellation bar.

While many economists believe it will return to stronger growth in 2026, hopes of a quick recovery are fading amid doubts over Berlin's planned investment spree under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Before Christmas, Germany's Bundesbank lowered its growth forecast for 2026 to 0.6%, down from its previous June forecast of 0.7%. However, the central bank raised the forecast for 2027 to 1.3%, predicting that the pace of economic activity would pick up from the second quarter of 2026.

US and Palestinian officials also used the ceremony to lay out a blueprint for the next steps in implementing a ceasefire in Gaza, and putting the territory under the day-to-day control of a Palestinian-run technocratic administration, which has been assembled in Cairo. The president's son-in-law Jared Kushner outlined a plan for the next 100 days, including a significant increase in aid deliveries, the rehabilitation of essential infrastructure, such as water, electricity and sewage systems, and the reconstruction of hospitals and bakeries.