Swiss watchmaking drops in September
Swiss watch industry exports have reported their first monthly fall since April 2017. Their value was 6.9% lower than in September 2017, at 1.7 billion francs. This variation is explained in part by the fact that there was one less working day in the period than last year. However, it is too soon to view this as a significant trend change. After nine months, growth remains strong (+7.5%), in line with forecasts. The main export markets reported varying performance in the month of September. Hong Kong (-3.5%), which had experienced no weakness for nearly one and a half year, saw its value diminish by a few points while remaining on a very sustained trend. The United States (-3.0%) also fell slightly. China (+17.3%) confirmed the strong upturn observed in August, while the United Kingdom was 2.0% lower.