Swiss annual inflation held at a low level in August, keeping the country’s central bank on guard as it considers cutting its key interest rate to below zero later this month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 0.2% higher than the same month of last year, matching July’s rate, Switzerland’s statistics office said Thursday. That remains within the Swiss National Bank’s target of positive inflation lower than 2%. The SNB meets later in September, with most investors currently expecting it to hold its key rate at 0%.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered Germany’s support for Switzerland in its bid to reduce the punishingly high trade levy US President Donald Trump imposed on the export-dependent nation last month, Bloomberg News reported. The 39% tariff Trump slapped on Switzerland is the highest for any developed country and officials in Bern are trying to persuade his administration to accept a new offer by October.

Switzerland soon hopes to finalise a new business offer for Washington to ease its tariff burden, which will likely include more defence spending and greater access for U.S. energy interests, Reuters reported. Switzerland was stunned when U.S. President Donald Trump this month hit it with one of the highest tariff rates worldwide - 39% - after complaining about the U.S. trade deficit with the country on a call with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.

Switzerland is intensifying efforts to strengthen its attractiveness as a business location, its government said on Wednesday, after being hit with some of the highest U.S. tariffs worldwide, Reuters reported. Efforts will focus on regulatory relief for Swiss companies, and new rules incurring high costs for businesses could be pushed back, the government said in a statement. U.S. President Donald Trump this month imposed U.S. import tariffs of 39% on Swiss goods, though pharmaceuticals and some other sectors have so far been spared the duties.

Switzerland is seeing a more than fivefold surge in mergers and acquisitions that’s outpaced most of its European peers, giving bankers hopes for a lucrative payout this year, Bloomberg News reported. The volume of takeovers targeting Swiss companies has jumped 465% to $16.7 billion so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Private equity firms are particularly active, with Advent announcing late Sunday it has agreed to acquire Zurich-listed chipmaker U-blox Holding AG in a deal valued at 1.05 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion).

Switzerland’s economic growth slowed sharply in the second quarter, as strong frontrunning of U.S. tariffs in the early part of the year unwound, raising the chance that the Swiss central bank will cut interest rates to below zero later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product rose 0.1% in the three months to the end of June, down from the 0.8% growth of the first quarter, statistical agency SECO said in a flash estimate on Friday. Growth in the first three months of 2025 was led by U.S.

The scene looked hopeful at first glance. A social media post by President Karin Keller-Sutter of Switzerland showed her smiling and shaking hands with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday, at a hastily arranged meeting after President Trump had blindsided Switzerland with a punishingly high tariff, the New York Times reported. “We discussed bilateral cooperation, the tariff situation and international issues,” Ms. Keller-Sutter said of the meeting with Mr. Rubio. But what she didn’t have was a trade deal.

The Swiss government announced on Monday that it is preparing a "more attractive offer" in its trade negotiations with the United States, in a bid to avoid high 39% US tariffs on its imports, which would severely damage the export-driven Swiss economy, EuroNews.com reported. In an official statement following an emergency government meeting, the Federal Council - the executive body of the Swiss government - confirmed its intention to continue talks with Washington, even after US President Donald Trump's 7 August deadline for the new tariffs to come into force.

Swiss annual inflation inched higher last month, though remained close to negative territory, suggesting the Swiss National Bank is still on course to push interest rates below zero later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 0.2% higher in July than the same month of last year, compared with annual inflation of 0.1% in June, Switzerland’s statistics office said Monday. July’s data came after the U.S. last week slapped a shock 39% tariff on most imports of Swiss goods, a higher rate than had been signaled earlier by the Trump administration.