'More spending cuts needed'

ZURICH: Switzerland must cut an additional 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.1 billion) from budgets in 2018 and 2019, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer was quoted saying on Monday.

"The situation is strained," he said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung.

"At the end of May we will present a stabilisation programme.

Beyond that, it needs new savings programmes in 2018 and 2019 each of around 1.5 billion francs.

"Cuts could come in budgets for foreign relations, the army, agriculture and, to some extent, education, the paper quoted Maurer, who has been in his current role since January, as saying. In January, the Swiss government projected rising structural budget deficits through 2019 due to infrastructure spending, corporate tax and pension reforms and rising numbers of asylum requests.