Swiss central bank keeps interest rates on hold
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is extending its pause in interest rate hikes by keeping the key rate at 1.75% for the second time in a row.
The SNB made its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday. The central bank had previously increased its key interest rate in five successive steps.
Inflationary pressure has decreased slightly over the last quarter, the SNB said in a communiqué on Thursday. However, uncertainty remains high. It will monitor developments closely and adjust monetary policy “if necessary” to ensure price stability in the medium term.
+ Will Swiss mortgage rates rise even further?
The possibility of further monetary policy tightening is no longer explicitly mentioned in the communiqué on Thursday. However, the central bank is still prepared to be active in the foreign exchange market if necessary.
In June 2022, the SNB tightened the interest rate screw slightly for the first time in 15 years with a step of half a percentage point, followed by four further interest rate increases until last June.
Since the SNB’s last monetary policy assessment in September, inflation in Switzerland has fallen slightly again. Most recently, at 1.4%, it was back within the SNB target range of 0 to 2%.
The US Federal Reserve also extended its interest rate pause the evening before. The same is expected from the European Central Bank, which will announce its interest rate decision in the afternoon.
More
Why is the Swiss franc appreciating so much?
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.