Swiss economy barely grows in the second quarter

A negative trend in industry was offset by growth in the services sector in the second quarter of the year. This was reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) in its initial estimate published on Friday.

In the first quarter, Swiss GDP had still shot up by 0.8 percent. At that time, more goods were exported from Switzerland to the USA due to the uncertainty surrounding US customs policy in the run-up to Liberation Day at the beginning of April. Pharmaceutical exports in particular rose sharply in March amid concerns about high US tariffs.

The Swiss economy thus developed in line with expectations, although there was little consensus among economists in the run-up to the event. The predictions of the experts surveyed by the news agency AWP ranged from a 0.3% decline in GDP to growth of 0.3%.

The current data is based on a quick estimate by Seco. Basic data that is still incomplete is supplemented with forecast values. The complete and updated data available at a later date could still change the result. The official estimate for the second quarter will be published by Seco on August 28.