Forexpros — Switzerland’s economy expanded in line with expectations in the second quarter of 2011, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office said the country’s gross domestic product increased in line with expectations by a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in the second quarter, compared to growth of 0.6% in the preceding quarter, whose figure was revised up from 0.3%.
Switzerland’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.3% in the three months to June, after rising by a revised 2.5% in the preceding quarter, broadly in line with expectations.
Positive growth impulses were generated especially by the trade balance with goods, since imports were on the decline while exports went up. Private consumption grew slightly whereas gross fixed capital formation suffered from a decrease.
On the production side, it was especially the domestic service sectors which contributed to growth, in contrast to the industry and the sector dominated by financial market services which stagnated or slightly decreased.
Following the release of the data, the Swiss franc was fractionally higher against the U.S. dollar, with USD/CHF slipping 0.06% to hit 0.8052.
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