The Figure 20% Debt Brake

The Figure

With the debt brake, federal expenditure should not exceed revenue adjusted to economic fluctuations. Nevertheless, the Confederation currently spends around 9,100 Swiss francs per citizen each year, which corresponds to 20% more in real terms than when the debt brake was introduced in 2003.

11.09.2024, Michele Salvi

More numbers

The Figure On The Electricity Price Gap Between Swiss and French Industrial Companies

13.11.2024, Simon Stocker

The Figure Poverty is a reality for a minority of senior citizens: if we consider only new retirees in 2023, 8 percent were receiving supplementary benefits at the time of retirement. However, three quarters of these recipients already depended on disability insurance or social assistance before their retirement. As a result, only 2 percent of new retirees received additional government support at the time of retirement.

05.11.2024, Diego Taboada

The Figure Beyond Gravity, part of RUAG International Holding AG, generates 96 percent of its sales abroad. The Confederation’s participation is therefore not justified: there is no public interest and no market failure.

01.10.2024, Lukas Schmid

The Figure Switzerland has the highest wealth tax in the world, and the trend is rising. Today, it generates 5.6 percent of total federal, cantonal and municipal tax revenue. At the beginning of the 2000s, it was still around 4.5 percent.

24.09.2024, Lukas Schmid

The Figure The Swiss National Bank’s balance sheet has grown significantly since the 2000s. While it still represented between 20% and 25% of GDP before the financial crisis of 2008, the balance sheet total is now almost as great as GDP, at 99% or almost CHF 800 billion. This increases political desires – such as the expectation of high profit distributions.

17.09.2024, Eveline Hutter

The Figure For well-qualified people, artificial intelligence (AI) is mainly an opportunity. Our calculations show that AI helps 68% of professionals holding a university degree in their work. Meanwhile, AI threatens one in four of these professionals.

03.09.2024, Patrick Schnell, Marco Salvi

The Figure Due to the promotion of photovoltaics, Switzerland will produce much more electricity in summer than it needs in future. If it wanted to store this surplus in reservoirs for the winter, a massive expansion of its infrastructure would be necessary, corresponding to around 800 times the size of the Nant de Drance pumped-storage power station, which opened in Valais in 2022.

27.08.2024, Simon Stocker, Christoph Eisenring

The Figure Switzerland has the highest wealth tax in the world, and it also is very progressive: in 2020, the wealthiest 5% generated 87% of tax revenues. Half of taxpayers pay no wealth tax at all, even though they have a net wealth.

20.08.2024, Lukas Schmid

The Figure Most young people walk distances between 500 and 1000 meters. However, Google Maps shows that in nearly 55% of these trips within Swiss cities, using public transport is faster than walking. This speaks for the density of the public transport network. Discover more about the speed of public transport in our new publication on August 15.

14.08.2024, Lukas Rühli, Eveline Hutter

The Figure Between 1985 and 2022, the number of daycare centers in Switzerland increased from 480 to 3,200, with around 100,000 childcare places. Relative to the number of children, the number of spots available has increased by a factor five, which puts Swiss childcare solutions within the European average.

06.08.2024, Marco Salvi

The Figure In Switzerland, the marketing organization Switzerland Tourism benefits from subsidies that are five times higher per overnight stay than its counterpart in Austria.

30.07.2024, Laurenz Grabher, Lukas Schmid

The Figure For the Confederation to grant an «access function» to public transportation and to co-finance operating costs, a community must have at least 100 inhabitants. In sparsely populated cantons, the Confederation covers up to 80% of the (usually drastic) shortfall in public transport operating costs.

30.07.2024, Lukas Rühli

The Figure The Swiss Confederation invests CHF 13 million per year in tobacco prevention. Meanwhile, tobacco production in Switzerland is backed by an annual subsidy of CHF 13 million. The government is therefore combating the consumption of a product while subsidizing its production.

23.07.2024, Diego Taboada, Jérôme Cosandey

The Figure In 2025, fiscal equalization payments will amount to CHF 6.2 billion. The Confederation is to bear CHF 4.2 billion of this amount, which corresponds to an increase of CHF 1.5 billion since the introduction of the new fiscal equalization system in 2008.

11.07.2024, Patrick Leisibach

The Figure Since 2013, 123 start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have emerged in Switzerland. According to the Stanford AI-Index, Switzerland is far behind the USA (5509 AI start-ups), leader of the ranking. However, considering the different population sizes, only Israel, Singapore and the USA have more…

27.06.2024, Patrick Leisibach, Lino Müller

The Figure Totaling 1.52 billion euros, England is the most expensive team in the Euro 2024 finals. This corresponds to more than five times the market value of the Swiss team. However, standing at 280 million euros, our national team is still the 14th most expensive team. From a solely financial point of view, nothing should stand in the way of reaching the round of 16.

18.06.2024, Eveline Hutter, Simon Stocker

The Figure While the number of male doctors remained practically constant between 1995 and 2022, the number of female doctors increased by 18,000. As highlighted in our latest publication on career choices, the increasing presence of women in highly-qualified, traditionally male-dominated professions has significantly contributed to reducing gender pay gaps.

28.05.2024, Marco Salvi

The Figure Since the introduction of the National Fiscal Equalisation system in 2008, the cantons of Central Switzerland have improved in this respect. However, the cantons of Western Switzerland have all lost relative financial capacity. Based on the resource index, which compares a canton's taxable income, assets and profits with the Swiss average (=100), Neuchâtel lost the most points with a drop of 20 index points.

14.05.2024, Patrick Leisibach

The Figure The real wage growth achieved between 2010 and 2020 caused a real bracket creep of CHF 2.52 billion in Switzerland in 2020. Federal, cantonal and communal income taxes would have been reduced accordingly if they had "only" risen at the same rate as the average wage.

30.04.2024, Lukas Rühli

The Figure Industrial Policy is anything but a no-brainer. To this date China has invested around 70 billion dollars in the state-owned aircraft manufacturer Comac. Despite this investment, the launch of its C919 airliner has been delayed several times. Moreover, no major aviation authority outside of China has certified its C919 model due to safety concerns.

23.04.2024, Lukas Schmid

The Figure Industrial policy can give some companies enormous negotiating power. After the announcement of extensive US subsidy programs, the Canadian government multiplied its subsidies for Stellantis by a factor of 15, rising them from 1 to 15 billion dollars. Why? The car manufacturer had threatened to shift a scheduled battery plant from Canada to the USA.

16.04.2024, Lukas Schmid

The Figure More than half of physicians in private practice have a foreign degree. However, Switzerland is making efforts to train more doctors: in 2021, 12.5 diplomas were awarded per 100,000 inhabitants. This is slightly more than in Germany (12.4) or France (11.9), where most foreign doctors come from. Significantly more of them are graduating in Italy (18.2) or Ireland (26.0).

09.04.2024, Jérôme Cosandey, Diego Taboada

The Figure According to preliminary estimations, electricity consumption in Switzerland fell by 1.7% to 56 TWh in 2023 compared to 2022. Meanwhile, domestic electricity production increased significantly by 13.5% to 72.1 TWh. One reason for this is the substantially higher production of hydropower plants and the increasing contribution from new renewables. Last year, Switzerland achieved an export surplus for the first time since 2020.

04.04.2024, Patrick Dümmler

The Figure In 2022, hardworking hens in Switzerland laid 1.135 billion eggs. This means that 185.6 eggs were consumed per person, both as food ingredients and as breakfast eggs, with a peak during Easter.

26.03.2024, Jelena Apelt

The Figure In Switzerland, the number of banks continues to decrease. Banking statistics provided by the SNB span from 1987 to 2022. During this period, the number of Swiss banks has fallen by 177 from 326 to 149. A year ago, Switzerland didn’t juste loose another bank, but a major one. The collapse of Credit Suisse therefore highlights the ongoing consolidation process in Switzerland’s financial center.

19.03.2024, Laurenz Grabher

The Figure On January 1, 2024, Switzerland had 2131 political communes. This is five fewer communes than in 2023 and a third fewer than at the time of the founding of the federal state (January 1, 1850: 3193 municipalities). This is mainly due to a rising number of communes merging, a phenomenon that began in the 1990s.

12.03.2024, Patrick Leisibach

The Figure At federal and cantonal level, there are around 4,000 pages of laws, ordinances and guidelines relating to the agricultural sector. While today the agricultural sector rightly denounces the excessive bureaucracy, the high level of subsidies is worth mentioning in comparison. The allocation of subsidies and legal requirements often go hand in hand. A reduction in transfers to agriculture would also reduce bureaucracy.

05.03.2024, Patrick Dümmler

The Figure In Swiss universities, 87% of Bachelor graduates enroll in a master’s degree programme within two years of graduation. Compared to other countries, this rate is high. In universities of applied sciences, on the other hand, this proportion is only 22%.

27.02.2024, Florence Mauli

The Figure Less than 1% of insured persons in the occupational benefits provision depend on the suppletive institution, also known as the “pension fund of last resort”. The remaining 99% of insured persons are covered by private market. This proportion has remained stable for 15 years, which is a sign of stability for the 2nd pillar.

20.02.2024, Diego Taboada, Jérôme Cosandey

The Figure A first: In 2024, around 10% (6 TWh) of Switzerland’s total annual electricity consumption is expected to be produced by photovoltaic (PV) systems. For around two years, the rising price of electricity has been a major driver, hence improving the profitability of PV investments. According to Swissolar, the aimed annual expansion of over 2000 MW as of 2027 (around 1.5 TWh) should be reached.

13.02.2024, Patrick Dümmler

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