ZURICH (Reuters – Switzerland’s economy grew at a slower rate than expected in the third quarter. This is despite the fact that the recovery from the pandemic continued in July and September.

These figures were unaffected by the Covid-19 case spike in Switzerland. They showed a slightly slower increase than the 1.8% in the second quarter and were below the Refinitiv forecast of 2.0%. [S8N2NQ00T]

“All restrictions on public health had been lifted by the end of summer. According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, “The strongest quarter growth was in those sectors which were most adversely affected by precautionary measures.”

It added that GDP overall was over 1% higher than in the fourth quarter 2019, which is the level before the crisis.

According to SECO, the largest increase was in lodging and food services. Value added has more than doubled over the preceding quarter.

The government made a decision to delay imposing new restrictions on coronavirus infection rates. Instead, it appealed to its common sense and to local actions to stop the “critical” rise in cases.

Bern decided to follow a different path than Austria. Austria has reinstated a lockdown ahead of a Swiss election to determine the fate of its pandemic response power.