18% of Swiss people assume that their financial situation will worsen in 2021. (Image: Shutterstock.com/Andrey Popov)
Almost every fifth adult in Switzerland believes that their financial situation will worsen in 2021. That is more than ever in the past four years, as a Comparis survey shows.
A year ago, 33% of adults in Switzerland were convinced that their financial situation would improve in 2020. The corona pandemic put an end to this optimism. Only one in four adults expects their financial situation to improve in 2021. By contrast, 18% assume that their financial situation will worsen in the new year – more than ever in the last four years. This is shown by a representative survey conducted by the online comparison portal comparis.ch.
Job problems and slump in sales
Anyone who anticipates a worsening financial situation in 2021 usually cites problems at the workplace as the reason: 68% of pessimistic people give up short-time work, a job loss (themselves or a partner), a smaller workload (themselves or a partner) or a drop in sales as self-employed at.
At the end of 2019, only 13% believed that their financial situation would worsen in the coming year. Of these, only 33% mentioned job-related reasons, whereas 46% mentioned rising health insurance premiums. This year, too, the health insurance premiums are causing concern, even if the proportion has fallen to 39%.
More than 4 out of 5 people (83%) are worried about the ongoing corona crisis. That is significantly more than in the last survey in May (76%) and slightly less than in the first survey in March with 88%. In terms of proportion, more people in French-speaking Switzerland are worried about the Corona crisis than in the other language regions; namely 92%, compared with 81% in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino with 78%.
Consumption has returned
Despite the high number of Corona cases at the end of the year and the gloomy financial outlook, the Swiss’ desire to consume has returned. In the survey in March, 42% stated that they would forego larger purchases such as furniture or a car because of Corona. At the end of the year this proportion was only 36%. Likewise, at the beginning of the crisis, 45% of the survey participants stated that they consume less and save more. In December 2020 it was only 38%. In contrast, significantly more people now state that Corona will not change their purchasing behavior, namely 30% compared to 24% in March. And more than 2% of respondents want to take out a personal loan (less than 1% in spring).
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