Switzerland, the consolidated balance sheet 2020 says -14.2 billion

The Federal Council had to approve a high deficit of the federal government due to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly heavy on the railways

At its meeting on April 14, 2021, the Federal Council approved the consolidated financial statements of the federal government for 2020, which closes with a deficit of 14.2 billion francs. The large loss is due to the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
The consolidated financial statements of the Confederation provide a comprehensive overview of the Confederation’s assets, finances and revenues as a group.

Die konsolidierte Jahresrechnung 2020 der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (German)
Les comptes consolidés 2020 de la Confédération Suisse (French)
Il consuntivo consolidato 2020 della Confederazione Elvetica (Italian)

In contrast to the federal financial statements, which require parliamentary approval and are limited to the federal government as the parent company, the consolidated financial statements also take into account the results of the quasi-public sector companies and the social insurances and present the situation from a performance perspective.
The consolidated financial statements for 2020 show an annual result of CHF -14.2 billion.
The loss is mainly due to the extensive measures taken by the Confederation to deal with the pandemic.

16.8 billion in spending to counter COVID19

The Federal Administration segment closes with a deficit of 16.4 billion. Expenditure to deal with the coronavirus pandemic amounted to 16.8 billion.
At the same time the economic downturn led to lower revenues.
Federal enterprises made profits of 227 million, which is clearly lower than in the previous year (2019: 2.5 billion).

Postal services and social insurance “hold up”

With the exception of Postal Services, all sectors recorded a loss in revenue.
The “Rail Passenger Traffic” sector was the hardest hit, with a decrease of 1 billion.
Social Insurance ended 2020 with a profit of 2 billion (2019: 3.4 billion).

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The distribution result for social insurance is again only slightly positive (0.5 billion; 2019: 0.1 billion).
On the other hand, the financial result (1.5 billion) was significantly lower than the previous year’s performance (2019: 3.3 billion).

How the accounts of the Confederation are determined

In the consolidated financial statements, the Swiss Confederation is considered as a group which also includes the funds, the decentralised administrative units, the companies and the social insurances.
The consolidated financial statements provide a comprehensive overview of Switzerland’s assets, finances and revenues.
It presents the economic situation from the point of view of the group’s results and consequently applies the accounting principle of temporal conformity.

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The federal financial statements include the central federal administration and are presented from a financing perspective (financing statement) and a performance perspective (income statement).
With a deficit of 15.8 billion, the financing statement is the central instrument for the political management of the Confederation according to the debt brake.
The provisional result was published on 17 February 2021, the detailed result on 25 March 2021.