Switzerland - Real Gross Domestic Product

For Switzerland, the expenditure and production approaches to gross domestic product (a.k.a. "use of GDP") from the quarterly national accounts. From 1980.

Quarterly

Active:

• National accounts framework: ESA 2010
• Industry classification: NOGA 2008, modeled after NACE Rev. 2
• Measurements:
  • Millions of Swiss francs at chained year-2020 prices (Mil. Ch. 2020 CHF)
  • At current prices (Mil. CHF)
• Adjustments:
  • Calendar day adjusted, seasonally adjusted, sports adjusted (CDASA Sports Adjusted)
  • Calendar day adjusted and seasonally adjusted (CDASA)
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start dates:
  • 1980Q1 for GDP(E)
  • 1980Q1 for GDP(O) sports adjusted variant
  • 1990Q1 for GDP(O) otherwise

Predecessors:

• At 2015 prices - 1980Q1 to 2025Q2 ("_15")
• Annual, pre-2020 benchmark - 1995 to 2019 ("_19")
• ESA 2010 at 2010 prices - 1980Q1 to 2020Q2 ("_10")
• ESA 95 at 2005 prices - 1980Q1 to 2014Q2 ("_E95")
• ESA 95 at 1990 prices - 1980 to 2003

Global concept aliases:

• GDP, GDP$
• C, C$
• G, G$
• I, I$
• IF, IF$
• CIVT
• NETEX
• EX, EX$
• TREG
• IM, IM$
• TRIG

Annual GFCF detail

Active:

• Measurement: Millions of Swiss francs at current prices (Mil. CHF)
• Adjustment: Not applicable
• Native frequency: Annual
• Start date: Uniformly 1995

Predecessor:

• Pre-2020 benchmark - 1995 to 2018 ("_19")

The source produces national accounts data in current prices (CHF) and in real terms, as well as seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted. Real data in millions of chained 2015 CHF are published with implicit deflators. The source publishes GDP for multiple expenditure categories. 

The Swiss QNA are compiled by a so-called indirect estimation approach, based on temporal disaggregation techniques. Quarterly estimates are derived from the available annual data, using statistical methods and quarterly indicators. The accuracy of the preliminary annual estimates, obtained as the sum of the quarterly estimated values, depends to a large extent on the quality of the available and retained quarterly indicators. For seasonal and trading days adjustment, Swiss QNA currently relies on the X13-Arima-Seats method.

Switzerland aggregates GDP(E) to "domestic demand" and "total demand".

Within GVA, the "arts, entertainment and recreation" branch (and hence total GDP) is reported using an additional analytic variant, viz., triple-adjusted: seasonal, calendar day, and sports event. This branch contains GVA earned by the several major international sports associations based in Switzerland, which occurs on a four-year cycle. This special adjustment facilitates business cycle analysis. This is the first such situation encountered by Data Buffet.

Yes.

The source writes:

In Switzerland, two institutions are responsible for national accounts (NA): the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), which is responsible for the annual results, and SECO, which produces the Quarterly NA. SECO incorporates the annual results of the FSO into its own calculations and thus ensures consistency between annual and quarterly figures ... SECO routinely adopts the annual revisions when calculating the quarterly figures. In the course of this, the quality of the calculation procedures of all quarterly time series is checked and ensured. Generally, quarterly NA are revised three years backwards in line with the annual data.

[An annual] revision is recommended every five years in order to define a new baseline year (a 'benchmark' revision). A revision of the concepts used should also be undertaken every ten years.

The main changes concern two areas: the revision of the methods and data sources used and improvements to coverage and completeness. Full coverage of all economic activities is a key component of the NA’s quality. Achieving this completeness is hard, as some economic activities such as illegal and informal production can only be tracked with difficulty. Gaps in the administrative data and statistics available are another potential cause of incomplete coverage.

The methods used to calculate the quarterly national accounts (QNA) are essentially remaining unchanged. The data for the full year is translated into quarterly figures using appropriate indicators and econometric methods (“temporal disaggregation”). The adjustments to the full-year figures are reflected in the quarterly data and also result in changes to the calculation method in some cases. The econometric approach has been scrutinised in detail and revised as required. In a number of cases, this translation into quarterly figures now uses alternative or additional indicators that align more closely with the adjusted full-year data. The calculations are also underpinned by a wider pool of data where possible.

The special situation "CDASA Sports Adjusted" applies to only four series: the "arts, entertainment and recreation" branch and total GDP, in both nominal and real terms.

Further reading

At the source:

• Adjusting Swiss GDP for the impact of major international sporting events (May 2018, pdf)
• NA revision 2018 (September 2018, pdf)
• Benchmark revision NA 2020 (September 2020, pdf)

At IMF (SDDS):

• Real sector » National accounts (Jan 2025)

• Sep 2005 - Initial version.
• Oct 2010 - Addendum of GDP by industry.
• Dec 2012 - Industry classification advanced to NOGA 2008.
• Oct 2014 - Framework advanced to ESA 2010.
• Dec 2020 - Currency reference year advanced to 2015.
• May 2022 - Addendum of "sports event adjusted" variant.
• 5 Dec 2025 - Currency reference year advanced to 2020: Properties, Global concept aliases.