Newly released figures for Swiss industry showed that production went up only barely in the first quarter of this year, increasing by a mere 0,3 percent over last year’s figures.

Newly released figures for Swiss industry showed that production went up only barely in the first quarter of this year, increasing by a mere 0,3 percent over last year’s figures.

The industry data, released by the Federal Office for Statistics on Tuesday, said the sluggish performance was due to sagging output in the machine industry, leather and shoe production and the manufacturing of precision instruments.

Hardest hit by the decline were the machine industry as well as the food, beverage and tobacco sectors, the statistics showed.

Production orders in the first quarter were down by 1.5 percent compared to last year’s figures and the overall volume of order books suffered a drop of 1 percent.

The Swiss construction industry, on the other hand, expressed optimism about its future – even though industry spokesmen said Tuesday that a full recovery was unlikely to take hold before 2000.

The industry said that low interest rates and a trend among Swiss toward building homes, rather than renting property, was a good sign for a recovery of the construction sector.


Sources: APD, sda-ats

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