GENEVA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Growth in the Swiss engineering and metals industries deteriorated significantly in the first half of 2019 and forecasts are equally gloomy, an industry association said Thursday in an economic barometer report.
New orders in the Swiss mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and metals (MEM) industries fell by 12.5 percent in the first half of 2019 compared with the same period last year, the industry association Swissmem said in a statement.
"Existing risks such as global trade and currency conflicts, a chaotic Brexit and smoldering debt problems in certain European Union countries have grown more acute," said the association.
Swissmem said that the Swiss economy is weakening in significant export markets which are dampening expectations for the coming months.
The sector is calling for more certainty in ties with major trade partners said Swissmem, which has more than 1,000 member companies in Switzerland and abroad.
Swissmem said the decline was particularly pronounced in the second quarter of 2019 when orders fell by 19.5 percent compared to the corresponding period one year earlier.
Exports and sales also fell, albeit by a smaller share, in the first half of 2019, driven largely by the European Union and Asia where exports dropped.
Large and small companies have been similarly affected by the negative development with firms running at an average 83.7 percent capacity, below the long-term average of 86.4 percent, the statement said.
