Swiss watches, chocolate and cheese are the stuff of clichés. Gold could be another one, yet Switzerland's status as the world's biggest gold trader is far less well known. In 2016, gold refined in Switzerland made up more than a quarter of its total exports, outpacing even the pharmaceutical industries. But you wouldn't know that from the government's official rankings.

As a result, the customs office did not include in the export tallies the more than 2,000 tonnes of gold worth CHF80.5 billion that it said were "exported" in 2016, just slightly more than the Swiss pharma trade's exports.