There is a new desire to consume
Even though more Swiss people than ever believe that their economic situation will deteriorate rather than improve in the coming year, consumer spending continues to rise. However, only about one in four Swiss believes that the financial situation will improve in the coming year, compared to a third in 2020. 18 percent even assume that the financial situation will get worse or significantly worse, which more people are than in the past four years.
Despite all the concerns, the propensity to consume seems to have returned, which experts would hardly have thought possible in view of the high corona numbers and the financial outlook. In the spring of last year many people still wanted? almost half ? refrain from making a major purchase. New furniture and vehicles were not bought. The share fell to 36 percent by the end of the year, many were tired of the savings and now approached such investments with the view that they could not go on vacation. Then why not treat yourself to something at least at home?
So at the beginning of the crisis, people wanted to consume less and focus more on saving. Many people now even state that their consumer behavior will not change, even if Corona would continue for a while. Around two percent of those questioned in the study even want to take out a loan, whereas last spring this figure had shrunk to one percent.
Drop in sales and problems at work
When asked about the reasons for the expected worsening financial situation, most Swiss responded that they were worried about their jobs. Some were already having problems in the workplace and it was to be expected that savings by companies would lead to layoffs. Many people were already on short-time work and accordingly earned less money, others had already lost their jobs or their partner was affected by unemployment. The self-employed had to struggle with a drop in sales and were therefore less able to pay attention to consumption, but were forced to save.
The values were significantly different at the end of 2019, because at that time only a small proportion of less than 15 percent stated that savings were due to problems at the workplace. Others referred to rising health insurance premiums, but a certain lack of prospects was not noticeable at the time. It will be different in 2021, because the ongoing Corona crisis has Switzerland and the world under control and ensures that hardly anyone knows what will happen next. Nobody knows whether the financial bottleneck will be surmountable in the near future or whether it cannot get much worse because the numbers are not falling permanently. Until the success of the corona vaccination is clear and the world can return to normal, consumption will therefore certainly remain limited.
Conclusion: increasing consumer confidence vs. fear of the future
The Swiss are currently divided and, on the one hand, are clearly more willing to consume than last year. On the other hand, however, they have to accept savings, save themselves and do without, because they are forced to do so by short-time working or job loss, for example. Experts assume that debt could rise significantly, because people want to do something good for themselves through purchases that they cannot achieve otherwise. The only thing left here is to hope that the pandemic will end soon.
