switzerland officially known as the swiss confederation is a country located in the middle
of europe and one of the wealthiest economies on the continent the confederation which is composed
of 26 cantons has their capital in burn but zurich remains as the most populated city switzerland
is bordered by italy to the south france to the west germany to the north and austria and
liechtenstein to the east with these countries they also share their four official languages
german french and italian together with the local romanish the country led by gui bernard parmelan
since 2021 is known for their banking system as well as their high standards of living with
one of the highest gdp per capita in the world the country is also well known among others by
their magnificent ski resorts chocolate cheese and watches after this quick introduction and keeping
in mind the aim of this channel we're going to go deep down into the numbers of this rich country
if you like this series of videos about economies of countries don't forget to give it a like and
subscribe for more future videos you'll be able to find out all the resources used in
this video on the description to find out the most updated data keep in mind that with the
week some data of this video will get a little outdated so in any case make your own research
for the most recent estimations on the other hand the study will be done mainly for 2020 data
trying to add the most recent 2021 data available which in many occasions still isn't released
gdp thanks to the data provided by swiss national bank in 2020 the gdp at current prices was 703.2
billion swiss francs which with the actual exchange makes an approximation of 777 billion
dollars as you can see in the graph in 2020 the swiss economy lost close to 3.3 percent from
2019 having a gdp lower even then 2018. the last data available for the first quarter of 2021
talks about a gdp at current prices of an estimated 175.1 billion swiss francs as you
can see this first quarter is still worse than the first quarter of 2020 and 2019 but with the actual
situation the swiss economy should be able to reach a similar level as 2019 for the end of 2021
population as you can see in the graph the federal statistical office of switzerland talks about a
population in 2019 of 8.6 million people to get a more recent estimation if we check the
eurostat projections for 2020 they estimated a population for switzerland of 8.5 million
which is lower than the official data of the switzerland government for 2019. in this graph
you could see the evolution of the population done by the eurostat estimations for switzerland the
estimated population for 2100 goes to 12 million people finally to end this section of the video
we're going to check the population pyramid in the same way it's happening in many countries
the pyramid is becoming flatter each year with the older population being a major percentage
gdp per capita assuming the 8.6 million estimation and the last gdp for 2020 we discussed before we
could estimate a gdp per capita for 2020 of 81 700 swiss francs or approximately ninety thousand
three hundred dollars on the actual exchange if we investigate the 2021 estimation for gdp per capita
thanks to the international monetary fund switzerland is situated with almost ninety
four thousand seven hundred 700 at the second position by gdp per capita worldwide just
behind luxembourg this type of data proves how wealthy the population of switzerland really is
official currency moving forward to the currency the official currency of switzerland is the swiss
franc issued by the swiss national bank and the swiss mint lichtenstein also uses the
swiss franc as official currency if we take a quick look into the exchange with the dollar
at the moment of doing this video the exchange goes around the 0.9 swiss franc for every dollar
making the currency more expensive than the dollar if we check the historical data of the exchange in
the last 25 years we could see how the currency has maintained a similar level to the dollar
since 2011 years after the subprime crisis before that time the swiss rank was always cheaper than
the dollar with the highest point in 2001 when you were able to get 1.8 swiss francs for each dollar
public debt the swiss government provides two types of debt one following the maastricht debt
definition commonly used in europe and the debt following the imf definition
i'm not an expert in the field but maastricht debt excludes some financial instruments such
as financial derivatives and other accounts payable you'll find a paper on the description
which goes deeper into the topic for the purpose of this video we'll take the imf debt
which in this case is higher than the maastricht one as you can see in the graph for 2020 the total
public gross debt of switzerland went up to 301 billion swiss francs representing 42.9 debt to gdp
it's estimated for the following years an increase in the gross debt to 335 billion swiss francs for
2024 but decreasing the debt to gdp to a 42.3 percent level public budget if we focus on the
public budget in 2020 the revenue of the swiss government went to 236 billion swiss francs or an
estimate of 260 billion dollars in the graph you can see the decrease in revenue from 2019 but also
the projections for the next years until the 258 billion swiss francs of revenue expected for 2024.
on the expenditure side in 2020 the swiss government spent almost 254 billion swiss francs
or an estimated 280 billion dollars leaving 2020 with an estimated deficit of 20 billion dollars
for the future of any country it is always better to get a surplus in your public budget
but as you can see in the graph the 2020 deficit was clearly a special situation the government is
also expecting an important expenditure for 2021 recovering the fiscal surplus for 2023
agriculture sector for the next sections about the three main sectors due to the unavailability of
the gdp by industry in the official switzerland government websites we will use the estimations
done by the eurostat which are done in euros and not in swiss francs in 2020 agriculture
forestry and fishing generated 4.6 billion euros or an estimate of 5.4 billion dollars which means
0.7 percent of the entire gdp at current prices in the graph you could see the evolution of the
agriculture sector in the last quarters and how in 2020 the sector had a clear increase in the first
quarter of 2021 the sector generated 1 billion euros industry sector the second most important
sector of switzerland's 2020 gdp at current prices is industry representing 25.3 percent
of the entire gdp and generating 161.5 billion euros or an estimate of 190 billion dollars
inside the industry sector manufacturing with 117.6 billion euros or an estimate of 138.6
billion dollars represents almost 73 percent of the entire sector construction follows with a much
lower 31.2 billion euros or an estimate of 36.8 billion dollars as you can see in the following
graph the industry sector of switzerland looks to be recovering the levels from 2019
when they had an important growth the first quarter of 2021 is still a little worse than
the first quarter of 2020 but looks like the swiss industry will grow in this 2021
service sector finally and as expected the biggest sector of the gdp at current prices is service
with 74 of the gdp and generating 472.6 billion euros or an estimate of 557 billion dollars
inside the sector the biggest sub sector is wholesale and retail with 125.9 billion euros
followed by professional scientific and technical activities with 69.5 billion euros and finally
financial and insurance activities with 63.6 billion euros finally if we check the graph of
the last quarters we can see how in the same way that happened with industry the second quarter
of 2020 was pretty weak with a recovery in the last quarters of that year the estimations for
the first quarter of 2021 let us think that the service sector will take a little longer
to recover the growth trend they had until the first quarter of 2020 tourism according
to the swiss national bank the international arrivals of 2020 were just 3.4 million people
while maintaining healthy domestic tourism with 7.6 million people arriving from switzerland
as always we focus on this section in 2019 a more normal year in 2019 as you can see in the graph
10.5 million people visited switzerland from abroad while 9.2 million did some domestic tourism
the 2019 meant a record in total arrivals with 19.7 million people inflation if we check the
swiss consumer price index we could see how in the last data from july 2021 the index was 101.02
being 100 december of 2020 meaning a 1.02 increase in prices since the end of last year which is a
small percentage as you can see in the graph the prices in switzerland have been almost constant in
the last 10 years exchanging inflationary years with deflationary ones keeping the prices in
similar levels with this in mind and the fact that the gdp per capita of the country has been rising
the purchasing power of the swiss people has been increasing in all this period
export and imports if we move to the trade balance we can see how in 2020 switzerland had a positive
trade balance of almost 34.5 billion swiss francs or the equivalent to 37.6 billion dollars which
means an increase of 34.4 percent from 2019 and the biggest surplus at least in the last 10 years
in the last 10 years switzerland has always been able to export more than they have imported which
is an amazing sign for the country if we move to each part of the trade balance starting with
exports in 2020 switzerland generated a total of 216.1 billion swiss francs decreasing 6.7 from
2019 but keeping a similar level to the previous years the most exported products by switzerland
for 2020 in order have been chemicals machinery equipment and electronics and finally watches
if we talk about countries the major export partners of switzerland in 2020 were by order
germany the united states and china on the other hand if we talk about imports in 2020
switzerland made a total of 181.7 billion swiss francs following almost the exact trend of exports
decreasing from 2019 but keeping a similar level as the last year's the most imported products by
switzerland for 2020 in order have been chemicals machinery equipment and electronics and finally
motor vehicles if we talk about countries the major import partners of switzerland in 2020
were by order germany italy and china if you're looking for the most recent data in this graph you
can see the evolution of the foreign trade until may 2021 in the description resources you will
be able to find the website to check the last day to buy country and product type switzerland bond
the actual yield of the 10-year bond of switzerland goes to a negative 0.39 percent at the
moment of doing this video the bond of switzerland has always been low starting to be negative since
early 2019 but no more than 1 percent in the last 10 years switzerland taxes switzerland has three
types of individual taxes the federal tax the canton tax and the municipal tax in the video
you can see the progressive table of the federal one but in the description as always you will find
the resources with all the individual tax tables the highest federal tax goes to just 11.5 percent
making switzerland an attractive country in tax terms in the same ways the individual tax the
swiss corporate tax also has different levels with the federal cantonal and communal tax overall the
highest corporate tax will go between 11.9 percent to 21.6 percent unemployment in july 2021 the
unemployment rate of switzerland was 2.8 percent after a high level of 3.66 percent in january
2021. the labor market of switzerland looks pretty strong and the unemployment rate is really low
conclusion switzerland together with other countries such as the netherlands or norway
has been one of the small european countries that has been able to become a rich economy
keep in mind that switzerland with a small population is a country that has almost no natural
resources making growth even harder switzerland with its weaknesses just as any other economy
is a great example of how to properly manage a country to make your population wealthy
if you like this video don't forget to give it a like and subscribe for more future videos
comment below what are your thoughts about switzerland if you know more about
switzerland's economy or you're from switzerland and want to add more data
let me know in the comments hope to see you in the next video and have a good day bye