SNB´s Schlegel: Will do everything it can to bring inflation down

The Swiss National Bank will do everything it can to bring inflation down, Vice Chairman Martin Schlegel told Swiss broadcaster SRF in an interview broadcast on Monday including hiking interest rates further as well as selling foreign currencies.

Key comments

"Our mandate is crystal clear, and that is price stability."

"And we're going to do everything we can to get inflation back to the target range of 0 to 2%."

"Of course I can't make any forecasts, but you can see our inflation forecasts are higher now than they were in December," he told SRF. "That means, that if necessary we will continue to raise interest rates."

´´We don't see any signs at the moment that that could threaten financial stability in Switzerland."

"We said quite clearly at the last assessment that we are also prepared to sell foreign currencies, to actually strengthen the franc."

"That's what we did in the last quarter, to the tune of 27 billion. That's quite a big number. We look at the exchange rate and will intervene if necessary."

USD/CHF update

USD/CHF is flat on the new day on Tuesday but was pressured on Monday as the US dollar slumped. The price dropped to a low of 0.9115.