Small and medium-sized industrial firms pout in December
Keystone-SDA
Swiss small and medium-sized industrial companies saw their activity decline in December. The SME Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell by 0.9 points to 49.4, once again falling below the 50-point growth threshold.
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This first bout of gloom since August is primarily due to sluggish demand, with the orders component falling by two full points to 49.6. Projections for production volume, meanwhile, fell to 49.9 points, compared with 50.4 points a month earlier, the Swiss bank Raiffeisen reported on Monday in its regular survey.
This renewed gloom also penalised the employment outlook, which fell to 49.5 points from 51.1 points.
A bit of news in the West
Notwithstanding a partial rebound in exports to the United States, driven by the aerospace industry, Swiss shipments abroad in the final quarter of last year remained below those of a year earlier.
+ Swiss economic outlook for 2026
In this respect, the outlook for 2026 is similar to that for the previous year. A slight majority of exporting SMEs are expecting the situation to remain unchanged. The remainder, however, are optimistic.
Adapted from German by AI/jdp
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