ZRICH (dpa-AFX) – Swiss companies are expanding their investment plans. For 2022 they expect a nominal increase in fixed investments of 7.5 percent.
This is the result of a survey by the economic research center KOF at ETH Zurich, which was published on Monday. In the previous survey from autumn 2021, companies still expected nominal growth of 3.4 percent for 2022.
“Compared to earlier surveys, companies’ investment plans are very optimistic,” wrote the KOF. In the last ten years, the expected growth in investment in the spring had averaged 4.8 percent.
The additional funds are to be used primarily for the construction and conversion of company and business buildings. The proportion of companies whose construction investments are expected to increase in the current year has risen from 31 percent in autumn 2021 to 51 percent in spring 2022.
Conversely, only 14 percent of the participants intend to reduce their construction investments this year. In the autumn survey it was still 20 percent. The proportion of companies planning to invest in equipment and machinery as well as in research and development this year has also increased.
In more than 90 percent of the companies, the investments serve to replace existing systems. At the same time, investments in environmental protection and compliance with commercial regulations have become increasingly important. For the first time since measurements began, they represent the third most important investment motive, as the KOF wrote.
In addition, more companies than before are planning investments to expand their production. 73 percent of the companies stated that they wanted to invest in expansions in the current year. That was a new high, it said. In the survey in autumn 2021 it was still 69 percent.
“Expansion investments increase the capital stock and thus the production capacity, which is why they can be interpreted as an indicator for the growth expectations of companies,” wrote the KOF.
“Companies primarily invest in the expansion of their plants when they expect rising demand. The increased proportion of companies that want to invest in expansion accordingly indicates positive demand impulses,” it continued.
In the service sector in particular, companies have become much more willing to invest. There, the expected increase for 2022 has risen from a nominal 2.4 percent last autumn to a nominal 7.7 percent. Companies from the retail trade (+23 percent) and wholesale (+10 percent) in particular are expecting a strong investment boost for 2022 compared to the previous year.
In contrast, the contributions from the rest of the sectors have changed little since the autumn 2021 survey. The manufacturing industry expects investment growth of around 8 percent for the current year, while companies in the construction industry want to reduce their investments by around 8 percent.
The biannual spring survey of the KOF 2022 was conducted in March. Of the more than 6,000 companies contacted, a good 2,400 responded./jb/ra/AWP/men