Swiss unemployment (sa) rose 2.7% in November

In November, the Swiss unemployment rate (sa) edged up to 2.7% from 2.6% seen in the previous month. The outcome compares with the market's and our forecast of a rate of 2.6%. In view of deteriorating growth, Swiss unemployment can be expected to rise further in the coming months, in particular because firms start bracing for recession and banks shed jobs to cope with the financial market turmoil. In view of sharply slowing growth, retreating headline CPI inflation and a deteriorating labour market, we expect the SNB to reduce rates by 50bp on 11 December, bringing the 3-maths Libor target to 0.5% (mid point).                    

Thorsten Polleit wrote in a Barclays Capital Research report today.