The Swiss franc slumped today even as yesterday’s macroeconomic data from Switzerland was rather good. As a result, the currency stays far away from the cap of 1.20 per euro that has been set in September 2011 by the central bank. The currency managed to gain on the Japanese yen.
Swiss retail sales grew 2.4 percent in August from a year ago, exceeding the consensus forecast of 1.7 percent. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in September from the previous month. On an annual basis, inflation slipped 0.1 percent last month.
Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan said that the central bank had no need to take measures for preserving the ceiling since September 2012 as the franc was staying away from the cap on its own accord:
Despite recent turbulence on foreign-exchange markets in emerging economies, the Swiss franc has settled against the euro since September 2012 at slightly above the minimum exchange rate of 1.20 per euro. Accordingly, the SNB did not have to enforce the minimum exchange rate for over a year now.
Yet Jordan mentioned that the currency remains “still high”.
USD/CHF rose from 0.9037 to 0.9056 as of 5:00 GMT today after falling to 0.9014 earlier. EUR/CHF surged from 1.2265 to 1.2285. Meanwhile, CHF/JPY ticked up from 107.14 to 107.44.
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