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5 December 2008
ZURICH – Swiss real gross domestic product was unchanged between the second and third quarter of 2008, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said Thursday.
Investments declined 1.4 percent while exports grew 1.2 percent for the third quarter.
"The negative contribution to growth of investments was compensated by the positive impulses of the trade balance and household expenditure," said SECO.
While Switzerland escaped negative growth in the third quarter, the chairman of the Swiss National Bank, Jean-Pierre Roth, said Wednesday that growth would probably be negative in the last three months of the year.
"In the fourth quarter of this year and in the first half of 2009, a contraction appears very probable."
[AFP / Expatica]