The Swiss National Bank spent 86.1 billion francs ($88 billion) on interventions last year, a measure of its efforts to shield the economy from deflation.
SNB President Thomas Jordan and his colleagues have repeatedly pledged to step in to prevent the franc from strengthening. They’ve done so even since they gave up a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 per euro in January 2015 on the grounds the interventions required to sustain it were out of proportion to the economic benefit.
“The vast majority of foreign currency purchases” was made that January, the SNB said in its annual report published on Thursday. “During the remainder of the year, the SNB also remained active in the foreign exchange market in order to influence exchange rate developments, where necessary.”
Swiss policy makers rarely state outright that they’ve intervened, and analysts use data on sight deposits and foreign currency reserves to gauge the scope of the central bank’s actions. Breaking with the usual protocol, Jordan said in June the SNB had acted to stabilize the franc amid the Greek debt crisis.
The 2015 figure compares with 25.8 billion francs spent on interventions in 2014 and 188 billion francs in 2012. The SNB made no foreign-currency purchases in 2013.
This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities.
Opinions are the authors — not necessarily OANDA’s, its officers or directors. OANDA’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy apply. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.
Recommended Content
Editors’ Picks
AUD/USD: Further losses retarget the 200-day SMA
Further gains in the greenback and a bearish performance of the commodity complex bolstered the continuation of the selling pressure in AUD/USD, which this time revisited three-day lows near 0.6560.
EUR/USD: Further weakness remains on the cards
EUR/USD added to Tuesday’s pullback and retested the 1.0730 region on the back of the persistent recovery in the Greenback, always against the backdrop of the resurgence of the Fed-ECB monetary policy divergence.
Gold flirts with $2,320 as USD demand losses steam
Gold struggles to make a decisive move in either direction and moves sideways in a narrow channel above $2,300. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield clings to modest gains near 4.5% and limits XAU/USD's upside.
Bitcoin price dips to $61K range, encourages buying spree among BTC fish, dolphins and sharks
Bitcoin (BTC) price is chopping downwards on the one-day time frame, while the outlook seen in the one-week period is a horizontal trade. In this shakeout moment, data shows that large holders are using the correction to buy up BTC.
Navigating the future of precious metals
In a recent episode of the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference podcast, hosted by Jesse Day, guests Stefan Gleason and JP Cortez shared their expert analysis on the dynamics of the gold and silver markets and discussed legislative efforts to promote these metals as sound money in the United States.