Swiss Foreign Trade Booms In The First Quarter

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Swiss imports and exports reached new heights in the first quarter, driven by the chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors. Shipments to the United States rose sharply. This content was published on April 17, 2025 - 14:40 2 minutes Keystone-SDA

• Français fr Le commerce extérieur suisse en plein essor au premier trimestre Original Read more: Le commerce extérieur suisse en plein essor au premier trimestr

Between January and the end of March, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 3.6% in nominal terms (not adjusted for inflation) over a quarter, passing the CHF74 billion mark for the first time, the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) said in a press release on Thursday.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

“The upward trend that began in the second quarter of 2024 has thus been confirmed, leading to a new all-time peak in outflows”, the FOCBS noted.

Over the same period, imports rose by 5.9% to a record 60.5 billion. On the input side, too, the positive trend observed since the second quarter of 2024 continued,“albeit at a slower pace”. The trade surplus stood at CHF13.6 billion.

With the exception of vehicles, all the groups of goods exported recorded an increase in the first quarter, albeit at different rates. With a rise of CHF2.3 billion, chemical and pharmaceutical products made the biggest contribution – based solely on the price effect – to export growth.

Exports to North America saw the strongest growth, up 16.6%, and 17.4% to the United States. In terms of imports, all twelve commodity groups were up on the previous quarter, contributing to a record result of CHF2.5 billion (+12.6%). Imports of chemical and pharmaceutical products were also“by far the most dynamic”.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. An editor then briefly reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out this short survey to help us understand your needs: External linkExternal linkExternal link

Popular Stories More Workplace Switzerland Trump tariff shock: how Switzerland is positioning itself Read more: Trump tariff shock: how Switzerland is positioning itsel

MENAFN17042025000210011054ID1109443248