Excess gold reserves
In 1999 Swiss voters approved a new constitution which effectively ended the statutory gold backing of the Swiss franc. As a result the Swiss National Bank decided to sell off half of its gold reserves of 1,300 tons over a number of years. Proceeds have been distributed from the 2004 annual result, with one third going to the government and two thirds to the cantons.
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.