FRANKFURT (MNI) – The situation with respect to exchange rates is
difficult in Switzerland for companies that are only exporting, Swiss
National Bank Chairman Philipp Hildebrand said in an interview
released Wednesday.
“The exchange rate plays a large role in an open country like
Switzerland,” the central banker explained to Switzerland’s
Handelszeitung.
“At the moment, the situation for a company that only exports is
difficult,” he underscored. “But on the other hand, many businesses
that import are profiting.”
He reminded that it is often forgotten that Switzerland runs a
trade deficit with the EU of over 20 billion francs. “We import clearly
more from the EU than we export there.”
Hildebrand also emphasized that the SNB’s intervention in currency
markets in 2009 and 2010 was not designed to defend a fixed exchange
rate. “That was never the goal.”
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$$EC$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$]
