Kinane Habra, Matthias Fengler, Winfried Koeniger, Jonas Bruhin2026-06-17 Official retail statistics are reliable, but they are available only at a low frequency and often with a delay because they rely on surveys. By the time these data are released, much of the information they contain is already outdated for policymakers and analysts who require timely… Read More Ahead of the Official Data: Learning about Retail through the CSI

Following the military strikes in the Middle East in late February 2026, global energy markets experienced significant disruption. Iran’s restrictions on maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of seaborne crude oil normally flows, substantially reduced tanker volumes along one of the world’s most critical oil transit routes. In this… Read More Shifted Spending: Swiss Consumer Spending During the Iran Crisis

First indicators showed that retailers experienced a positive Christmas season.[1] In this blog, we want to have a closer look at expenditures during the Christmas season and quantify the difference in spending compared to previous years. For this purpose, we use card expenditure data provided by Worldline Schweiz AG. In particular, we use the real… Read More Higher expenditures during the Christmas season in 2025 than in 2024

Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Data from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland in the merchant category Retail: Other Goods reveals that sales in the Black Friday week increased by an impressive 49% relative to the previous week, reaching the highest weekly turnover for this year. On Black Friday itself, November 28, sales… Read More Retail Spending Spiked Again on Black Friday—Yet Turnover Fell Below 2024 Levels on Black Friday Itself and in the Black-Friday Week

The UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 in Switzerland brought us great football, packed stadiums, and an incredible atmosphere across the country. Besides leaving lasting memories, the tournament might also give a boost to the Swiss economy. While long-term effects of such an event are generally hard to measure, we can estimate the effects on the Swiss… Read More British Fans Score Big for St. Gallen Restaurants

2025 has been a turbulent year so far. On April 2, 2025, the US president announced Liberation Day, promising import tariff increases for many trading partners. The announcement and the resulting rise in economic uncertainty has been associated with a large decline of economic activity in Switzerland and beyond. In this blog, we try to… Read More Resilient Retail Spending: Tracking Swiss Consumer Spending After Trump’s Trade Shift

28. May 2025 A large literature has analyzed the determinants of urban growth and urban decline. Recent policy measures of the city of St.Gallen targeting the costs of parking and the availability of parking spaces have sparked a public debate in which rising parking costs and limited availability of parking spaces have been linked to… Read More Urban decline due to parking costs? Do the costs and availability of parking spaces impact expenditures in retail stores and restaurants in inner cities?

28. May 2025 The song wasted love of the Austrian singer JJ won the Eurovision song contest, which took place on May 10-17, 2025, in Basel. The event was expected to generate CHF 60 million in value added. The day after the event, the city of Basel declared the ESC a big success. In this… Read More Wasted love but no wasted money? The effect of the Eurovision song contest on local spending

11. February 2025 After the holiday season, some people return gifts which they have received.[1] Using electronic payment data, we want to find out how pronounced the refunds are across different expenditure categories and how large the differences are in January (when more returned items are likely to have been gifts) relative to the rest… Read More Does the January gift hangover become smaller? Refunds across time, category, and transaction channel

2. December 2024 Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Data from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland in the merchant category Retail: Other Goods reveals that sales in the Black Friday week increased by an impressive 55% relative to the previous week, reaching the highest weekly turnover for this year. On Black Friday itself,… Read More Spreading out the spending: Retail spending surges by 5.2% year-on-year during the Black-Friday week, with less spending concentrated on the Black Friday itself