CHF: Almost a year on – Rabobank

By FXStreet FXStreet (Delhi) – Jane Foley, Research Analyst at Rabobank, notes that almost a year has passed since the SNB walked away from its commitment to maintain a minimum EUR/CHF1.20 exchange rate on January 15 2015.

Key Quotes

“Even though the USD trended higher vs. the CHF through most of last year, the enormity of the CHF’s rally last January means that measured on a 12 mth view, the CHF is still the best performing G10 currency.

In response to the strains placed on businesses from currency strength, the Swiss unemployment rate ticked higher during the course of last year to 3.4% from 3.2% at the end of 2014. While the size of this change may appear incremental, the direction is a cause for concern. The Swiss unemployment rate has continually pushed higher since 2011, in contrast with the direction of the jobless rate in Germany which has ticked lower in recent years to new post reunification lows of 6.3%.

At its policy meeting last month the SNB referred to demand for labour as “muted” and levels of capacity utilisation as “unsatisfactory”. That said, despite preliminary GDP data suggesting that the domestic economic stagnated in Q3, the SNB expects real GBP growth of …read more

Source:: FX Street