Central bank says Swiss economy powering ahead

The vice-president of the Swiss National Bank has said the Swiss economy is growing faster than most of those within the European Monetary Union. Jean-Pierre Roth said that was the reason for the recent hike in interest rates.

The vice-president of the Swiss National Bank has said the Swiss economy is growing faster than most of those within European Monetary Union. Jean-Pierre Roth said that was the reason for the recent hike in interest rates.

In an interview with the Le Temps newspaper, Roth said the tightening of fiscal policy would in no way scupper economic growth. He underlined the fact that by not raising rates above those of the European Central Bank, the Swiss had demonstrated their independence from the EU. But, he added that such independence was relative, given that Switzerland does not operate alone in the monetary arena.

Roth was also optimistic on the subject of the internet and the recent surge in on-line banking. He said that while it was still too early to assess whether web-transactions would affect the Swiss National Bank’s monetary policy, similar fears which abounded when credit cards were first introduced turned out to be unfounded.

swissinfo and agencies