Swiss Franc notably after SNB left policy rate unchanged at -0.75%. The central bank reiterated the commitment to “intervene in the foreign exchange market as necessary, while taking the overall currency situation into consideration”. The so-called exemption threshold for negative interest rates was raised from 20 times of minimum reserve to 25 times. The overall announcement is seen as much less dovish than expected.
Both GDP and CPI forecasts were lowered. GDP growth is expected to reach 0.5-1% this year, down from 1.5% projected in June. CPI is revised lower to 0.4% for this year, down from 0.6% previously. Inflation is expected to ease further to 0.2% in 2020 (previous: 0.7%) before recovering to 0.6% in 2021 (previous 1.1%).
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