4 ms·

It is not much a matter of cost of living but rather cost of the Swiss Franc versus other currencies. Currently, the swiss Franc is very strong, therefore maki

• mschuster91 9y ago
  > It can become a huge problem for an economy based on trading with neighbors. Exactly. Switzerland has just 8.5M people living there, while the US has 322M and Germany 82M. If Germany were expensive, for example, it'd still have a sizable inner-country market while Switzerland does not.
  • remline 9y ago
    It changes what you try to do, but Switzerland and Germany isn't all that different from Silicon Valley and the US. You use premium resources in Switzerland and try to sell German (or EU) resources back upon lower markets at a high enough volume and mark up to make the high market costs incidental.
  • throwawaymanbot 9y ago
    The EU has 510 Million.
• siscia 9y ago
  Actually, the Swiss franc is at one of its lowest points in the 10Y view [1] A Swiss franc is traded at roughly 1.09 Euros, I would say significant, sure, but not a deal breaker in high-tech industries. If we were talking about commoditized products I would have to agree but in our industries this is just not the case. [1]: http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=CHF&view=10Y http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=CHF&view=10Y
  • 1wd 9y ago
    It's the other way around: EUR/CHF=1.09 means 1EUR=1.09CHF. > [2011 to 2015] the Euro was exchanging [at] CHF1.20. [Then] the exchange rate stabilised to between CHF1.05 and CHF1.08 to the Euro, due in large part to further intervention from the SNB which discreetly set about buying up foreign currency to ensure the franc did [rise to] new heights https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/money--money--money_swiss-economy-slowly-recovering-from-exchange-rate-shock/42799542 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/money--money--money_sw...
    • siscia 9y ago
      Yeah sorry... Still my point holds...
      • ponyfleisch 9y ago
        > Yeah sorry... Still my point holds... not really, no. the opposite, actually. while not an all time high, it is pretty high in the 10 year context and it did affect export industries.
        • siscia 9y ago
          What industries where effected the most?
          • 1wd 9y ago
            Mechanical and electrical engineering industries were seriously affected, according to Swissmem: https://www.swissmem.ch/en/news-medien/news/mem-industrie-die-frankenstaerke-hinterlaesst-deutliche-spuren.html https://www.swissmem.ch/en/news-medien/news/mem-industrie-di... According to Credit Suisse, "nearly all sectors of industry are affected", especially the Mechanical Engineering industry, but also Metals and Food Industries, Hotels, Catering and Retailing: https://www.credit-suisse.com/ch/en/articles/articles/news-and-expertise/2015/03/en/strong-swiss-franc-hitting-industry-commerce-and-hotels.html https://www.credit-suisse.com/ch/en/articles/articles/news-a...
    • 9y ago
  • fla 9y ago
    Yes. The strength is the inverse of that.
    • siscia 9y ago
      My point was that in high margin industries such rate is not a big issues.
      • fla 9y ago
        Sorry but this is not true. It has been such a big deal that the central bank pegged the currency artificially.
• likelynew 9y ago
  Start-ups mostly do not generate profits. Yeah, losses might increase but who in start-ups care about say 5% less revenue due to currency.