Author: Selwyn Manning

Source: KOF Economic Institute

UPDATE: The KOF Economic Barometer rises in September. After its consecutive increases over the previous months, it continues to stay above its medium-term average. The outlook for the Swiss economy remains favourable.

In September, the KOF Economic Barometer increases by 1.6 points to a level of 109.1 (after a revised 107.5 in the previous month). Among the indicator bundles included in the Economic Barometer, the indicator bundles for manufacturing, services, as well as for construction show particularly positive developments. A slightly weakened outlook, however, is shown by the indicators for foreign demand and financial and insurance services.

Within the producing industry (manufacturing and construction), the majority of the sub-indicators for the different aspects of business activity exhibit positive developments. In particular, the sub-indicators for exports, for stockpiling of intermediate products, and for the general business situation indicate a brightened outlook. The sub-indicators for employment prospects, however, are under pressure.

The positive developments are supported by most of the sub-indicators within manufacturing. While the sub-indicators for machinery and equipment manufacturing are slowing down, the sub-indicators for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, for paper and printing products, as well as for the textile industry develop particularly favourably.

KOF Economic Barometer and Reference Series: Annual Update

The annual 2026 revision took place in September. These updates always comprise the following steps: a redefinition of the pool of indicators that enter the selection procedure, an update of the reference time series and a renewed execution of the automated variable selection procedure. For further background information, we refer to the document ‘Background Information KOF Economic Barometer September 2026 Revision’.

The updated pool of indicators now consists of 538 economic time series. The updated reference series is the smoothed growth rate of Swiss GDP distributed across the three months of a quarter from 2016 until and including 2025, based on the official quarterly real GDP statistics, adjusted for the effects of major international sporting events, as released by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) at the beginning of September 2026. SECO in turn takes the release of the previous year’s annual GDP data published by the SFSO into account.

The 2025 vintage of the KOF Economic Barometer (published until August 2026) comprised 342 indicator variables. The current 2026 vintage, which is now replacing the 2025 vintage, consists of 327 indicator variables. Compared to the previous vintage, 33 indicators are new and 48 indicators dropped out of the set of selected indicators. The Barometer is the rescaled weighted average of the selected indicators, where the weights correspond to the loadings of the first principal component.

KOF Economic Barometer: Economic outlook remains favourable

The KOF Economic Barometer rises in September. After its consecutive increases over the previous months, it continues to stay above its medium-term average. The outlook for the Swiss economy remains favourable.

In September, the KOF Economic Barometer increases by 1.6 points to a level of 109.1 (after a revised 107.5 in the previous month). Among the indicator bundles included in the Economic Barometer, the indicator bundles for manufacturing, services, as well as for construction show particularly positive developments. A slightly weakened outlook, however, is shown by the indicators for foreign demand and financial and insurance services.

Within the producing industry (manufacturing and construction), the majority of the sub-indicators for the different aspects of business activity exhibit positive developments. In particular, the sub-indicators for exports, for stockpiling of intermediate products, and for the general business situation indicate a brightened outlook. The sub-indicators for employment prospects, however, are under pressure.

The positive developments are supported by most of the sub-indicators within manufacturing. While the sub-indicators for machinery and equipment manufacturing are slowing down, the sub-indicators for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, for paper and printing products, as well as for the textile industry develop particularly favourably.

KOF Economic Barometer and Reference Series: Annual Update

The annual 2026 revision took place in September. These updates always comprise the following steps: a redefinition of the pool of indicators that enter the selection procedure, an update of the reference time series and a renewed execution of the automated variable selection procedure. For further background information, we refer to the document ‘Background Information KOF Economic Barometer September 2026 Revision’.

The updated pool of indicators now consists of 538 economic time series. The updated reference series is the smoothed growth rate of Swiss GDP distributed across the three months of a quarter from 2016 until and including 2025, based on the official quarterly real GDP statistics, adjusted for the effects of major international sporting events, as released by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) at the beginning of September 2026. SECO in turn takes the release of the previous year’s annual GDP data published by the SFSO into account.

The 2025 vintage of the KOF Economic Barometer (published until August 2026) comprised 342 indicator variables. The current 2026 vintage, which is now replacing the 2025 vintage, consists of 327 indicator variables. Compared to the previous vintage, 33 indicators are new and 48 indicators dropped out of the set of selected indicators. The Barometer is the rescaled weighted average of the selected indicators, where the weights correspond to the loadings of the first principal component.

Opensignal

Annual Global 5G Awards Name Worldwide Winners, Leaders, And Rising Stars from Billions of Real-World User Experiences

BOSTON – Opensignal, a global independent consumer connectivity analytics and insights company, today announced its annual Opensignal 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards, recognizing the providers delivering the best real-world 5G experiences across their national mobile networks. The awards assess billions of real-world user experiences across Download Speed, Video, Games, Voice App, Reliability, Coverage Experience, and — new for 2026 — Time on 5G, collected between Jan. 1 and June 29, 2026.

“The consumer connectivity experience is at the core of everything we do at Opensignal. As the role of 5G in modern life grows, the bar for what great 5G looks like keeps rising,” said Shawn Heidel, President, Network Experience at Opensignal. “The best operators in the world are defined by how well they deliver on that challenge, and this year’s Global 5G Award winners set the standard.”

The highest-scoring provider in each category earns the 5G Global Winner title. Global Leaders make up the next tier, and a separate Rising Star recognition goes to the five operators that improved the most year-over-year, rewarding progress and recognizing the dynamic, changing nature of 5G networks. Providers are split between large and small land areas, recognizing that serving a vast, varied geography with 5G is a fundamentally different challenge from densely populated, compact areas.

Key Findings

• Brazil’s Vivo retains its 5G Download Speed title in large land-area markets, with national rivals Claro and TIM close behind as Global Leaders.
• In small land-area markets, South Korea’s SK Telecom dethrones KT to take the crown at 495.1Mbps.
• T-Mobile US and Singapore’s Singtel repeat last year’s wins for 5G Coverage Experience in large and small land-area markets respectively.
• In the newly introduced Time on 5G category, T-Mobile US leads large land-area and Singapore’s StarHub tops small land-area markets.
• For 5G Reliability, Japan’s au and SoftBank jointly lead large land-area markets, while Denmark’s Norlys and Telenor, alongside Austria’s A1 and Slovenia’s A1, share the top spot in small land-area markets.
• The Netherlands’ Odido wins 5G Video outright in small land-area markets, while 12 operators from Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Poland are tied for the large land-area title.
• Germany’s Telekom and Switzerland’s Swisscom lead 5G Games Experience in large and small land-area markets, respectively.
• Japan’s au wins the 5G Voice App title again in large land-area markets, and South Korea’s KT claims the win in small land-area markets.
• Peru’s Bitel stands out as the biggest mover overall, claiming Rising Star recognition across five categories: Download Speed, Video, Games, Voice App, and Reliability.
• South Africa’s Vodacom and Albania’s ONE each earn three Rising Star titles.

5G Global Winners

Large Land-Area (Markets with land-area greater than 200,000 km²)

• 5G Coverage Experience: T-Mobile (USA)
• 5G Download Speed: Vivo (Brazil)
• 5G Games Experience: Telekom (Germany)
• 5G Reliability: au (Japan), SoftBank (Japan)
• 5G Video Experience: Elisa (Finland), DNA (Finland), T-Mobile (Poland), Tele2 (Sweden), 3 (Sweden), Telenor (Sweden), Play (Poland), Telenor (Norway), ice (Norway), Orange (Poland), Telia (Norway), Telia (Finland)
• 5G Voice App Experience: au (Japan)
• Time on 5G: T-Mobile (USA)

Small Land-Area (Markets with land-area less than 200,000 km²)

• 5G Coverage Experience: Singtel (Singapore)
• 5G Download Speed: SK Telecom (South Korea)
• 5G Games Experience: Swisscom (Switzerland)
• 5G Reliability: Telenor (Denmark), Norlys (Denmark), A1 (Austria), A1 (Slovenia)
• 5G Video Experience: Odido (Netherlands)
• 5G Voice App Experience: KT (South Korea)
• Time on 5G: StarHub (Singapore)

The full report, including a complete list of Winners, Leaders, Rising Stars and qualifying operators, as well as markets, methodology, and graphics are available at https://insights.opensignal.com/2026/09/5g-global-awards-2026/dt.

About Opensignal

Opensignal is a global independent consumer connectivity analytics and insights company, delivering an unmatched combination of real-world network data and competitive market intelligence. Its insights are fueled by 50+ billion daily data points from over 100 million devices worldwide on mobile, fixed broadband, and satellite networks, alongside pricing, promotions, and competitive conditions, showing how consumers actually experience connectivity and why they switch. In addition to public network benchmark reports and market insights, Opensignal delivers this intelligence through its portfolio of premium solutions, including Opensignal Network Experience Suite, Opensignal Subscriber Analytics, Frontline Network Experience, and GeoResults. Headquartered in Boston, Opensignal has offices in Canada, the UK, Poland and Singapore. For more information, visit https://opensignal.com.