GENEVA – Swiss President and Finance Minister Karin Keller expects a higher annual budget deficit of about 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.31 billion) in the next few years due to higher military spending and pension costs.
Switzerland has historically had balanced budgets although it began reporting larger deficits than in 2020 due to additional costs linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2024, the expected deficit was 2.6 billion Swiss francs, a government website showed.
Swiss voters decided in a referendum last year to increase pension payments for the elderly despite government warnings that it was financially unsound.
The neutral country is also upgrading its defenses after the Ukraine war, buying new fighter aircraft and missile systems as well as building new data centers to make them less vulnerable to cyber attacks.
($1 = 0.9057 Swiss francs)
