UBS CFA Society Switzerland Indicator (ex ZEW) in Switzerland

A monthly survey of financial analysts on the six-month outlook for the Swiss economy (the balance of optimists minus pessimists, in points). It is the UBS CFA Society Switzerland Indicator (Financial Market Survey Switzerland): it began as ZEW and Credit Suisse's Finanzmarkttest Schweiz, has been produced by CFA Society Switzerland with ZEW methodology since 2017, and is now run jointly with UBS. International calendars still list it as the 'ZEW Expectations' index.

It is computed as the balance (diffusion) between the share of analysts expecting the Swiss economy to improve over six months and the share expecting it to worsen; the neutral remainder does not score. A positive reading means optimists predominate and a negative one, pessimists. It is a soft, qualitative gauge, with no base year or deflator.

As an expectations survey, it leads the cycle and works as a barometer of investor sentiment towards Switzerland. A strong improvement points to greater optimism on growth and inflation and can support the Swiss franc (CHF); a deterioration flags caution. It provides context for reading the SNB, though it is not a hard activity figure.

It is an opinion gauge, not a measure of real activity: it captures the subjective expectations of a small sample of analysts and can be volatile and diverge from actual macro outcomes. It measures only the expected direction, not the magnitude, and is sensitive to financial-market noise.