SNB announces its latest monetary policy decision - 19 March 2020
- Prior -0.75%
- Sight deposits rate unchanged at -0.75%
- Swiss financial system has sufficient liquidity
- To intervene more strongly in the FX market to stabilise the situation
- Says that Swiss franc is even more highly valued
- Will take additional steps to ensure liquidity as necessary
- Examining whether or not to relax the countercyclical buffer
No change by the SNB as expected, given their limited policy room and the fact that their recent interventions have proved to be enough (by their standards at least). They are saying that they will be intervening more strongly in the currency market though.
Something to note is that they also changed their view on the franc as they deem it now as 'even more highly valued' compared to 'highly valued' previously.
So far, they have been intervening to smooth out the appreciation in the franc and I reckon their pledge to do so more strongly would mean that they will continue to carry out such operations as seen in the latest sight deposits data here.
The full statement of the SNB decision can be found here.
