Swiss consumers don’t need govt help to cope with inflation -finance minister

Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer attends a news convention in Vienna, Austria August 25, 2020. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

ZURICH, May 25 (Reuters) – Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer ruled out federal government help for shoppers strike by large vitality prices and mentioned finances cuts may possibly be wanted because the government would not increase taxes to temperature a looming economic storm.

“Petrol prices are affordable in rich Switzerland,” he instructed the Tages-Anzeiger paper in an job interview published on Wednesday.

Maurer, a fiscal hawk from the correct-wing Swiss People’s Occasion, stated a recession was nearing but its severity depended on how long the war in Ukraine lasted and on energy costs.

He explained Swiss banking companies should really resist force to stage up enforcement of sanctions on Russians being punished in the West for the invasion of Ukraine.

“If something we should really say: Sluggish down a bit and don’t put into action the sanctions with a ‘Swiss finish’. Our banking companies probably sanction extra harshly than any individual else,” he was quoted as indicating.

He said Switzerland should really use gas-fired power crops and lengthen the lifetime of nuclear energy vegetation to enable meet its power needs, incorporating that Switzerland would assistance to finance gasoline terminals that neighbour Germany was developing.

Reporting by Michael Shields Enhancing by Edmund Klamann

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Believe in Ideas.