Swiss exports continue downward spiral

When corrected for the fact that last month there was one working day more than in August 2014, the reduction in exports was 8.3 percent, the Federal Customs Administration said in its monthly report.

Imports fell even more substantially by 16.4 percent to 11.4 billion francs, a drop of 19.6 percent when corrected for working days, the FCA said.

That left a positive trade balance of 2.9 billion francs for the month and a cumulative surplus of 23.9 billion francs for the first eight months of the year, up by more than 4.9 billion francs from the same period a year earlier.

Exports fell in all sectors except for food, drinks and tobacco (up 16 percent), with jewellery sales to foreign markets down by 11 percent.

The drop in exports from the chemicals-pharmaceuticals sector — down by seven percent — accounted for the single biggest reduction (432 million francs) by sector.

Watch exports dipped 1.6 percent to 1.47 billion francs, with lower sales to China and Hong Kong offset by improved exports to the US, Japan, Germany and France, FH, the federation of the Swiss watch industry said.

For the first eight months of the year watch exports totalled 13.96 billion francs, 1.2 percent below for the same period in 2014.