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The Swiss franc is surging against the US dollar and we'll tell you why.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
So when markets get nervous, money looks for somewhere safe.
And right now, that place is Switzerland.
The Swiss franc has climbed to its strongest level against the dollar in more than 10 years, rising 35 so far this year.
But that rush into safety is starting to cause problems at home.
I spoke to Christina Jaeger, an economist and Swiss banking expert based in Zurich, to find out why.
Swiss franc is strong mainly because it's being treated as a global safe haven.
And when investors feel uncertain about the world, as for example, they do in the moment about the US, geopolitical uncertainties or trade tangents, or also just concerned about the major economies in the world that we're facing right now, then these investors tend to move into currencies that they trust.
And Switzerland does stand out because of its political stability.
You have also low public debt.
You have very strong and trusted institutions and very credible central banks.
So they usually really also try to refrain from intervention.
Yes, they intervened between 2011 and 2015 when they pegged the Swiss francs to the euro.
But since then, they really tried to refrain from any intervention.
So at the moment, you can really say that safety matters more than yield.
Now, sometimes people listen to us chatting about currency markets and think that has nothing to do with me.
But actually, this might have an impact on exporters, won't it?
For sure.
Because, I mean, Switzerland is a small country and it's heavily dependent on exports.
So a strong franc, you can say, is kind of like a double-edged sword and definitely a challenge.
Because when the Swiss franc strengthens, then that means, that Swiss products become more expensive for customers abroad.
And that affects sectors like Europe. very famous pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland.
Watches, worldwide, no, no.
Also tourism.
But on the positive side, import dependent companies.
They can also benefit, because then the imports would become cheaper.
And then Swiss households, they have more purchasing power abroad.
But yeah, overall, Switzerland is definitely a small export-oriented economy.
So a Swiss franc that is strong does really put a lot of pressure on growth.
And that's why the Swiss National Bank, they watch the exchange rate so closely.
Switzerland is one of the few countries where the central bank often worries that the currency is actually too strong.
So could that complicate things for the central bank then?
The Swiss franc makes the Swiss national bank's job much more complicated because it pulls kind of in two opposite directions.
So on one hand, a strong franc helps Switzerland by keeping inflation low and the imports cheaper.
But on the other hand, then the franc becomes too strong.
It starts to hurt the real economy.
And for those exporters, recently they had to deal with really high U.S. tariffs.
Now, that's not a problem anymore.
However, for exporters could this just be another blow to them that makes things a lot more difficult for their business.
Last year, we had crazy US tariffs, right?
Like Trump raised them super sharply up to 39 percent.
And it was definitely a real concern.
Then a few global players in Switzerland, like Roche, Nestle.
They went to Trump and they negotiated special tariffs.
So now they have come down again and there's kind of like a sense of relief.
And businesses don't see these tariffs as an immediate shock anymore, but they definitely haven't disappeared from the risk radar either.
That was Swiss banking expert Christina Jaeger.
Now we've had several big announcements of job cuts, even from companies that seem to be performing well.
Amazon, the chipmaker ASML and the logistics company UPS have all said they're going to streamline their workforces.
Here's my colleague Rebecca Smiley with the numbers.
Yes, it seems that the increasing use of AI in attempts to cut down on bureaucracy are amongst the reasons for the swathes of layoffs.
Amazon has confirmed that it's cutting 16000 jobs worldwide just hours after it told staff about a new round of global redundancies in an email apparently sent in error.
The company employs 15 million people globally, and this round of layoffs is the second in the last three months, after it announced 14000 job cuts in October.
Meanwhile, UPS has said it will eliminate 30000 operational jobs as it winds down its partnership with Amazon.
According to its 2024 annual report, UPS had about 490000 employees, with nearly 78000 working in management.
And despite announcing a record year for sales and orders in 2025, which pushed its share price by 7 on Wednesday, Dutch chipmaker ASML has announced it plans to cut 1700 jobs, roughly 4 of the company's workforce.
That was Rebecca Smiley with the numbers.
With me now, Ross Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell.
Hello, Ross.
Hello, Leanna.
Let's talk about that Dutch chip giant ASML.
Make sense of it for me because I would think if you're doing well, you would be in expansion mode.
You wouldn't be letting go of stuff.
I think it's the same as Amazon.
It comes back to what Warren Buffett, the now retired legendary investor, always used to say.
He wanted companies to do three things really well.
Focus, keep it simple and be ruthless on costs.
I think that's what they're doing now.
So they stay lean, don't get flabby.
So if things do get more difficult, they're still prepared and ready to go.
So this isn't saying something about their companies, essentially.
It's just a strategy.
I think it's an ongoing process.
And I think with UPS, it's just them making money out of doing huge amounts of volume for Amazon really hard.
And they're looking to maybe find another customer instead.
All right, Russ Mould, stay right there.
The annual rate at which prices rise.
In Zambia, inflation has slipped below 10 for the first time in nearly three years.
A surge in copper prices, which makes up more than 70 of exports, has helped tame that inflation rate, and it's a trend we've seen across Africa.
Over the past five months Ghana Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe that were all suffering from high inflation, have all brought it down to single jits.
Now one of the world's leading technology bosses has warned of an AI bubble with inflated share prices for tech firms and says that there'll be carnage if it bursts.
The chief executive of Cisco, Chuck Robbins, has told the BBC's Faisal Islam that, while some companies won't survive, artificial intelligence will be bigger than the internet.
Cisco is one of the world's leading technology companies behind some of the critical IT infrastructure enabling the day-to-day use of AI.
It was hit when the original dot-com bubble burst in 2000, but survived and thrived after losing 80 of its value.
Now its boss, Chuck Robbins, confidant of President Trump, says while AI technology is unstoppable, there may be some financial turbulence ahead.
Every major technology revolution that we see feels like hype to begin with, and there's been a lot of discussion about is this a bubble?
And the answer is probably yes.
There's carnage along the way, but it is going to be bigger than the internet.
Mr Robbins said some jobs were already being eliminated by AI, particularly in areas like customer services, where he said companies would need fewer people.
There's some jobs that we already know are going to probably be changed and some that will be eliminated by using AI.
Give us an example.
I think you're going to see a lot of contact centre customer service jobs are going to change, but we're using a ton of AI and we're able to do more with fewer people, and that's just the way it is.
But he urged people not to be afraid of the technology and embrace it in their lives.
That was the BBC's Faisal Islam speaking to Chief Executive of Cisco, Chuck Robbins.
Ross Mould is still with me.
Seeing as we're talking tech, we've also got results out later.
IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, what are you looking towards?
Good results from Meta and Microsoft for sure.
Less good for Tesla as its car business remains under pressure.
But it's important these companies continue to perform well.
Earnings are expected to grow for American companies by 18% by analysis this year.
Their spending is expected to add a whole percentage point to GDP at least because of AI spending.
And they're a big percentage of the US stock market's total valuation.
So they're really important companies.
Absolutely.
We've also got a Fed meeting later, a rate decision.
Any expectations there?
No change expected.
We're probably no doubt to the disappointment of President Trump because he continues to press for lower interest rates.
He may get two interest rate cuts later in the year from the American Central Bank.
Whether that's enough to keep him happy, we'll find out.
We will find out, absolutely.
Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell.
Always a pleasure.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Now, that is it from World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
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Thanks for listening.
