Switzerland: unexpected inflationary upsurge

Switzerland shows that inflation is more permanent than previously thought. Switzerland's annual inflation rate rose to 3.3% year-on-year in January 2023, the highest reading since September 2022, from 2.8% the previous month and above market expectations of 2.9% . The cost further increased for food and soft drinks (5.6% vs 4.0%) alcoholic drinks and tobacco (2.2% vs 1.7%), clothing and footwear (3.5% vs 2.2% ), housing and energy (5.1% vs 4.2%) and recreation and culture (1.9% vs 1.8%). On the other hand, costs slowed down for home maintenance (5.2% vs 5.7%), transport (4.7% vs 5.3%) and restaurants and hotels (2.6% vs 2.7%), while inflation remained stable for health (at -0.4%) and education (at 0.3%). On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.6% in January, after a 0.2% drop in December, and compared to market forecasts by 0.4%.

Here is a short chart

And a chart with a longer view, which allows us to grasp how high this inflation is for the recent Swiss economy

As you can see, the causes are not only closely linked to energy: by now inflation, like a sort of wave, is spreading to other sectors. The stagnation linked to energy was like a stone thrown into a pond whose waves are the price increases of the other energy sectors, starting with food. This means that the inflationary push, especially where the economy is strong, will not run out immediately, but will continue for a certain time.

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The article Switzerland: unexpected inflationary surge comes from Scenari Economici .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/svizzera-fiammata-inflazionistica-inattesa/ on Mon, 13 Feb 2023 11:23:43 +0000.