The Alpine country of banks and chocolate is no longer the world's richest state
According to the portal Swissinfo.ch, these are the results of the 8th "Global Wealth Report" compiled by the insurance company "Allianz-Versicherung".
The company's specialists assessed 50 countries worldwide in terms of household budgets and debts. In recent years, Switzerland had consistently held first place in this ranking, but now it has had to cede it to the United States.
Of course, their advantage looks rather modest, but what is the reason? According to experts, exchange rates played a role, among other factors – the American stock market has grown faster in recent years than the Swiss one.
As a result, over the past year, the average net wealth per capita in Switzerland increased by 2.7%, which is also not bad – the growth rate is accelerating. In the US, however, this figure grew by as much as 5.8% over the same period. At the same time, the level of household debt in the Alpine country grew faster than anywhere else.
Swiss can be considered world champions in terms of average per capita financial debt, which is associated with the significant popularity of mortgage loans in the country, which are currently as cheap as ever in Switzerland (sometimes even less than 1% per annum).
In absolute figures, each Swiss currently has an average debt of 106,715 francs, thereby surpassing the average German, French, Italian, and Austrian – combined.