Swiss economic growth slowed to a crawl at the end of 2013, official data shows, amid concern that the strong Swiss franc and recent vote limiting immigration from the EU might further hamper the country's economy.
Switzerland's economy grew just 0.2 per cent during the final three months last year, compared to the previous quarter, according to the statistics on Thursday from Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO.
Fourth quarter growth, which had been expected to slow, was thus below the 0.5 per cent hike seen in the third quarter and at the low end of expectations.
Analysts polled by the AWP financial news agency anticipating growth of between zero and 0.5 per cent during the three-month period.
"The overall figures are a bit disappointing," J. Safra Sarasin analyst Alessandro Bee told AFP.
Compared to the same period a year earlier, the wealthy Alpine nation saw its economy grow 1.7 per cent, which remained lower than the third quarter's annual growth rate of 1.9 per cent.
SECO meanwhile said it now expected full-year growth for 2013 to tick in at 2.0 per cent, up from 1.0 per cent in 2012.
This initial estimate is in line with the central bank's forecast that growth would slow in the fourth quarter and that the economy for all of 2013 would swell between 1.5 and 2.0 per cent.
Capital Economics analyst Jonathan Loynes cautioned though that the fourth quarter slowdown "may raise fears that the economy is finally succumbing to the strength of the Swiss franc."
Switzerland is not a member of the European Union and is thus outside the eurozone.
The Swiss economy has long been one of few bright spots on the European map, but the surging value of its franc has created headaches for exporters, whose margins can easily be eroded by unfavourable exchange rates.
To counter this effect, the central bank in 2011 set an exchange-rate floor of 1.20 francs to the euro.
