ZURICH, June 1 (Reuters) - Swiss economic growth slowed in the first quarter of 2016 as solid private demand and investments in construction and equipment were tempered by weaker government consumption.
First-quarter gross domestic product was up 0.1 percent from the final quarter of 2015, when the economy grew 0.4 percent, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said in a statement on Wednesday.
Year-on-year, growth was 0.7 percent, a jump from the previous quarter's 0.3 percent on easier comparables.
Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the economy to grow 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter and 0.8 percent year-on-year.
The Swiss economy is slowly recovering from a jump in the Swiss franc's value after the Swiss National Bank lifted a currency cap against the euro in January 2015. The franc remains about 8 percent stronger against the euro than it was 11 months ago.
Household consumption expenditure and that of non-profit institutions serving households increased by a strong 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016, fuelled by the healthcare category as well as housing and energy, SECO said.
Government consumption was down 0.8 percent, while investments in equipment rose by 2.1 percent due mainly to investment in other transport equipment, which is largely immune to business cycles, the secretariat said.
The Swiss government in March trimmed its 2016 growth forecasts by 10 basis points to 1.4 percent.
Switzerland's economy grew 0.9 percent in 2015, as exports showed signs of resilience in what some executives said was one of the toughest years they could remember.
(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)