"This uplift in the Christmas budget is mainly due to a planned increase in spending on gifts"
- Deloitte
Swiss consumers claimed their readiness to increase spending during Christmas shopping, the Swiss Christmas Retail Survey 2012 made by Deloitte showed on Tuesday. Consumers intend to spend around 996 Swiss francs ($1,076) this season, compared to 955 francs in the year ago. Only about 30% of all nations' consumers consider that they have lower spending power, compared to 41% in the Eurozone. At the same time, due to the continued strength of the Swiss Franc, retailers lowered their prices in September compared with last year. On a related note, SECO said that confidence among consumers in Switzerland increased to -10.90 in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from -13.10 in the prior quarter.
"This uplift in the Christmas budget is mainly due to a planned increase in spending on gifts," Deloitte wrote.
"It is doubtful that Switzerland is already on a sustainable recovery path. The economic problems in the eurozone are having an increasingly strong impact on the Swiss economy," Hartmann of VP Bank said.
"The current level of the index paints too rosy a picture of Switzerland's economic outlook," said Bernd Hartmann, head of investment research at VP Bank.
© Dukascopy Bank SA