Half-Year Economy Looks Modest as Franc and Rates Stay Sticky

NEUCHATEL - End-June briefings from the statistical and economic complex pointed to modest growth for 2026, in line with what the SNB had sketched in March. Unemployment drifted only a little. Inflation stayed inside the comfort range. None of that helps a machine-tool exporter invoicing in euros, or a developer waiting on a credit committee.

Pharma in Basel and watches in the Jura remain the shock absorbers. Construction is the lagging sector that households feel as a missing flat.

Politics as a cost

Capital rules, EU law and army money will all try to write themselves into the second-half story. The UBS file's autumn chapter is here.