– He struggled for a long time – E24

The Alpine country’s central bank is expected to take action against the country’s strong currency.

Last week, the value of the Swiss currency reached its highest level since 2015. This may give the country’s central bank, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), a reason to weigh in on the strong exchange rate.

– The SNB has long struggled with an overly strong Swiss franc, and has recently strengthened in part due to expectations of interest rate cuts in Europe and the United States, says currency strategist Dane Sikhoff at Nordea.

– In times of a fragile macro picture, the currency has generally performed well, and the Swiss franc has benefited well from the uncertainty globally, he says.

The Swiss franc is considered a safe haven for investors. This has led to a strong currency, and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has sometimes had to intervene to keep developments under control.

– The Swiss Central Bank has historically intervened and sold the Swiss franc to keep the currency weak. They tried it in 2015, but had to give up because keeping the currency strong artificially is not sustainable over time, he says.

Possibility of currency depreciation

An interest rate meeting will be held on Thursday in the Alpine country, which has long seen negative and weak interest rates and low inflation of 1.4 percent at the latest. The interest rate is expected to remain unchanged, but impacts on the Swiss currency are still possible.

Analysts at Wells Fargo & Co, Societe Generale SA, Raiffeisen Switzerland and Monex Europe expect the SNB to send signals to moderate currency strength, such as easing a repeated phrase in their statement indicating a desire to buy the franc, Bloomberg wrote. .

The concern now is that an excessively strong currency could hurt the country’s export competitiveness and slow growth, according to the newspaper.

“Moreover, the central bank could well cut the interest rate next year depending on the economic situation in Switzerland,” Sikov says.

Different from Norway

Here at home the situation is different.

– The problem is completely different than in Norway, where the krone is considered unstable and risky, says Sikov.

At the same time, Norges Bank stresses that it is not managing according to any target for the krone exchange rate, which has weakened by about 12 percent against the euro in the past year.

The Swiss franc also strengthened significantly against the krone in the past year.