"We see an increase in value, especially in the high end, and a rather quite stable evolution in volume, even a slight decrease in the low end"
- Jean-Daniel Pasche, president of the Swiss Watch Federation
The outlook for the Swiss economy remains bright and the business activity is expected to continue gaining momentum, the Swiss National Bank said Friday. A survey made by the SNB showed that economic activity was once again stable at the level of the previous quarter. A slight improvement in business activity in the services sector can be seen as well, while exports experienced a slowdown, and the dynamism of domestic demand remained unchanged. At the same time, the SNB pledged its readiness to continue defending a 1.20 per Euro cap. The SNB has been selling francs for other currencies, mostly euros, since September 2011, to avoid the risk of deflation and a recession, when investors rushed to buy Swiss francs as a safe haven from the Eurozone's debt crisis.
"Global uncertainty will persist for the foreseeable future and drive demand for secure investments," SNB President Thomas Jordan said at a briefing in Bern. "As a result, the exchange-rate situation will remain fragile, despite the calmer environment that has come about as a result of the measures taken by the ECB. We cannot exclude the possibility that we will have to intervene substantially again."
SNB Vice Chairman Jean-Pierre Danthine added: "We want to contribute to a soft landing. Activating the countercyclical capital buffer is a question of timing."
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