The Swiss state has no debts at all, but it is wealthy. It has assets of 100 billion francs or more. This is shown by all available statistics – both the Federal Finance Administrationof the International Monetary Fund or the OECDAnd even if it were in debt, Switzerland could sleep soundly thanks to its enormous private wealth and current account surpluses. There is enough money in the country.
The cantons are the wealthiest. The cantonal finance directors always protest when confronted with these figures. The assets are tied up – in schools, administrative buildings, roads, etc. As a result, there were no billions in liquid funds in the coffers that were simply available.
It is then interesting to see the Income from financial assets with the corresponding expenses to compare. If the state takes out a lot of loans and has to look at liquidity, interest and financial expenses are much higher than the corresponding income. In Switzerland, the opposite is the case. Financial income from interest, real estate and investments amounted to over CHF 7.3 billion in 2022. Financial and interest expenditure, on the other hand, amounted to around CHF 2.5 billion. The Swiss state thus makes a surplus of around CHF 4.8 billion from investments and investments. Even if construction and maintenance expenses were also included, there would still be a high surplus. Here, too, the cantons are doing particularly well – with a surplus of more than CHF 2.5 billion. At the federal level, income and expenditure are balanced.
