"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial centre and the planned withholding tax, we assume that a total of hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland"
- Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management
The amount of cash Swiss commercial banks held with nation's central bank edged higher in the week to March 22, adding to signs that investors are getting less anxious over the Eurozone's financial woes. Sight deposits of domestic banks rose to 282 979 million francs last week, up from 282 164 million a week earlier. During the last several months, the amount of currency reserves hold by the SNB, stabilised around 427 billion, as the bank decreased its efforts in defending the country's currency from haven flows. Despite the fact, the Swiss Franc trades versus the shared currency around 1.22 level, the risks for Europe's economy remain too serious to allow the SNB to change its currency cap. However, it is expected that soon the Swiss National Bank could raise the floor.
"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial centre and the planned withholding tax, we assume that a total of hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland," said Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management.
"The economic environment worsened again at the end of last year and the growth outlook was lowered," Fritz Zurbrügg told the daily Aargauer Zeitung, adding that exchange-rate risks were still on the cards as a result.
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