FRANKFURT (MNI) – The flight from the euro is putting strong upward
pressure on the Swiss Franc, endangering price stability and the
economic recovery in Switzerland, Swiss National Bank President Philipp
Hildebrand said Monday.
“Uncertainties regarding the future of Europe directly impact
Switzerland and the SNB,” Hildebrand said in a speech text prepared for
delivery in Zurich.
“The flight from the euro leads to strong upward pressure on the
Swiss franc and thus endangers price stability and the economic recovery
in Switzerland,” he said.
The situation is particularly disconcerting as the SNB cannot
directly influence developments in the Eurozone but can only react to
them, he explained.
Hildebrand said that he is convinced that “European institutions
will do everything to put economic and monetary policies on a stable
basis.”
In the meantime, the SNB will have to do what it has always done
when threatened by external shocks: “We have to react to external events
flexibly and, when necessary, decisively,” he said.
“The National Bank has proven in the past crisis years that it is
able and willing to do so,” he asserted. “I can assure you, that it will
remain so in future.”
–Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69 720142. Email: jtreeck@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$$CR$,MGX$$$,MT$$$$,M$$EC$,M$X$$$]
