Switzerland: Economic sentiment brightens in September
The KOF economic barometer—a leading composite indicator for the Swiss economy forecasting a six-month period—rose to 102.2 points in September from a revised 98.9 points in August (previously reported: 100.3 points). Consequently, the index currently lies above the series’ long-run average of 100 points, signaling economic growth should be slightly above its ten-year average in the short-term.
The improvement in economic sentiment in September came primarily on the back of a positive contribution from the manufacturing sector, which was due to firms’ more upbeat outlook on employment, production, and overall business sentiment. Moreover, the exporting and financial sectors also had more optimistic outlooks. Meanwhile, the remaining sectors had slightly positive or neutral opinions of future economic conditions in September.
It should also be noted that the KOF Swiss Economic Institute completed its annual revision of the KOF economic barometer in September. The revision included an adjustment of which pool of indicators is used to compute the index. The KOF Barometer now considers 345 variables compared to the 2017 series which considered 273 variables. Subsequently, historical data has been revised according to the new criteria.