The number of foreign direct investment projects in Switzerland dropped last year to 58, down from 75 in 2021, according to a study published on Thursday.
An annual survey by consultants EY said the US (21 projects) was the most frequent source of investment, followed by Germany (six) and the UK and Austria (both five).
For the study, EY counted projects aimed at creating new sites and jobs on Swiss soil, and not foreign investments in portfolios or in mergers and acquisitions.
André Bieri of EY Switzerland said the drop showed the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic: “Travel from one continent to another having […] resumed its normal course only a few months ago, a kind of ‘pipeline’ of new investment projects has formed in new sites in Europe” which are not yet reflected in the study, he told the Keystone-SDA news agency.
The first year of the pandemic, 2020 saw a 10-year high of 91 foreign-funded investment projects established in Switzerland, bucking a general trend of decline across Europe.
Yet if the influx of investment capital to Switzerland was on the downturn last year, the movements in the opposite direction slightly increased: Swiss projects funded abroad increased from 238 to 248, with Swiss entrepreneurs creating a total of 13,564 jobs in 28 countries.
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