Swiss economy benefits from being outside of EU

This report on the Reuters website makes interesting reading.

According to experts, the Swiss economy looks like it might be one of the few winners in the global recession and not being a member of the EU is one of the big reasons why.

Switzerland has taken advantage of the access it has to cheap, skilled labour from the EU and the EU's internal market without being shackled by EU regulations.

Swiss interest rates were kept lower than the eurozone rate helping to keep the economy growing while the eurozone finance ministers argued with each other about what they could do to interest rates without making millions of people unemployed and the Swiss government bailed out the bank, UBS, in record time without having to worry about breaking EU regulations. The pound has nearly halved in value against the dollar while the Swiss franc has increased in value.

So they have access to the EU's internal market and cheap labour but they don't have 75% of their laws made by foreign politicians and they don't have to give billions of pounds a year to the EU for the privilege. Someone's getting a bum deal and it sure as hell isn't the Swiss!