"It is a minimum exchange rate that at the moment guarantees adequate monetary conditions for Switzerland."
- Thomas Jordan, SNB's President
The Swiss Franc was almost unchanged against the U.S. Dollar and single currency, with crosses trading around 0.9041 and 1.2226 respectively on the back of mixed fundamental data from the Alpine country.
On Thursday the Federal Customs Administration said the merchandise trade surplus eased to 0.5 billion francs in December from 2.03 billion a month earlier, as the pace of growth in imports outpaced the increase in exports. A report showed goods exports advanced 5.2% to 14.69 billion over the period, while imports soared 8.4% to 14.19 billion. During the whole 2013 both shipments and imports rose 0.3%. At the same time, a separate report from SECO showed a gauge of consumer confidence inched higher to +2 in January from –5 in October, beating analysts' expectations for a –1 reading. The largest contribution came from the sub index of future developments, with the corresponding index soaring to +18 from +1 in October.
It is hard to asses the overall economic performance of Switzerland, however, it is clear the SNB will be maintaining its cap on the Swiss Franc in the foreseeable future. The appropriate level of the Swiss Franc is one of the main priorities for the Swiss National Bank. In order to avoid Franc's further appreciation, the SNB imposed a cap against the Euro in September 2011.
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