No recession in Switzerland this year: economist

Switzerland does not expect to dip into recession this year despite the threat of an energy supply squeeze, the government's chief economist said Sunday.

The Swiss economy is  "doing well" despite the impact of the war in Ukraine on energy prices, Eric Scheidegger told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

He said it was down to companies to steel themselves for the possibility of power shortages in the winter months.

"We may have to revise our economic forecast downwards for next year. The revised forecast will be published on September 20. However, we do not expect a recession for this year," Scheidegger said.

"We run the risk of an energy supply bottleneck in winter. If there are persistent production interruptions in the EU and we ourselves have a gas shortage, it becomes problematic.

"In our negative scenario, we expect zero growth for 2023 instead of growth of almost two per cent." Despite the threat of power shortages and the effects of the war in Ukraine, Scheidegger does not see a serious economic crisis heading towards Switzerland.