“Switzerland’s Banking Industry No Longer Dominant in Economy, Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Take the Lead”

A prominent Swiss newspaper reports that Switzerland is no longer a banking country, as other industries contribute more to the economy.

Yesterday, the newspaper “Blick” said that the acquisition of the UBS Group. The Credit Suisse group will further reduce the economic importance of the country’s banking sector, which has already fallen to less than 5% of GDP from about 8% before the global financial crisis, according to Bloomberg News.

The pharmaceutical and chemicals industry, which accounts for around 6.3% of GDP, outperformed the overall importance of the banking sector to the Swiss economy.

Bloomberg quoted economist Alexander Ratke of the KoF Institute. “Growth is now happening in other sectors,” he said in an interview with Blake at ATH Zurich University. The newspaper added that the Swiss drug industry, which includes companies such as Roche Holding, Novartis and Lonza Group, is growing by about 5.9% annually. While the banking sector is witnessing stagnation or decline, the insurance companies are growing, contributing about 4.1% to the economic output.

Commodity trading giants such as Vitol, Glencore and Cargill make up about 5.5% of Swiss gross national product.