Since June 1995, CREA has been compiling Business Cycle Indexes (BCI) for the six French-speaking cantons and Switzerland as a whole. We have recently extensively revised the methodology to include mixed-frequency data and extend the calculation to all 26 Swiss cantons. Our daily-updated BCI indicate whether the economic conditions currently prevailing in a canton are favorable or unfavorable in relation to the long term. The CREA BCI are also computed at the regional and national levels based on the relative economic size of each canton.

The new methodology calculates coincident cantonal business cycle indicators, i.e. indicators that are correlated with current GDP growth, and thus enable us to measure the current state of cantonal economies. They are based on a limited number of cantonal data available at the monthly (consumer spending, exports, industrial production, registered unemployed workers, vacancies) and quarterly frequency (GDP, employment). Expressed in points, the average value of a BCI is zero. Above/below this value, economic activity is above/below long-term average. The indicator makes it possible to compare the economic situation not only between different periods, but also between different geographical areas. For example, a value of -3 would indicate that economic conditions are less favorable in Switzerland than during the 2008-09 financial crisis, while a higher value in Zurich in March or April 2020 would mean that the canton fared relatively better during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.