The Swiss National Bank kept interest rates unchanged as expected at -0.75% and stressed that it is still willing to intervene and take further action to weaken the franc when necessary.
The Bank also kept its short-term target range (Libor rate) unchanged at -1.25% and -0.25%. The Swiss National Bank said in a statement of monetary policy that the Swiss franc remains highly valued and the situation in the FX market remain fragile.
The bank kept inflation expectations for 2018 unchanged at 0.9%, while reducing them to 2019 and 2020 to 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively, with expectations that inflation will hit 2% in the second quarter of 2021.
Following strong growth during previous quarters SNB expects the pace to slow slightly and the economy is expected to grow by 2-2.5% in 2018.
