The red curve represents two different variables: in the left-hand panel it denotes the intraday turnover for EURCHF, while in the right-hand panel it shows the bid-ask spread, which is an indicator of transaction costs. Finally, the salmon-coloured area shows the historical average. We can see that trading activity between 17:00 and 17:30 was above the historical  6 I should also add that knowledge-sharing between central banks has been stepped up at international level. Cf., for example, the report by the Bank for International Settlements, Monitoring of fast-paced electronic markets, 17 September 2018. Page 5/9  average. By contrast, the bid-ask spread widened only slightly, before swiftly returning to normal levels. As a result, despite the strong Swiss franc appreciation, market liquidity remained strong. If we combine the information in these three charts, we can see that the Swiss franc appreciation recorded on 8 February was accompanied by high transaction volumes, but this was absorbed comparatively easily by the market. This example shows how we analyse the microstructure of the market in real time. But capturing micro-changes in real time is not enough to allow an understanding of the underlying market dynamics of the Swiss franc. Rather, we need to be able to tie them to longer-term trends, in other words a period spanning several weeks or months. Since the beginning of the year, for instance, we have observed three risk-off events that put upward pressure on the Swiss franc, as illustrated by the red curve in chart 4.

As chart 1 shows, in Switzerland inflation remained low in the early post-crisis years, due in particular to the fall in energy prices and strong appreciation of the Swiss franc in the aftermath of the euro area debt crisis. Today, thanks in part to the monetary policy measures taken by the SNB to combat the strong appreciation of the Swiss franc, inflation for imported goods and services has returned to positive territory (cf. red bars). Furthermore, the price of oil is trending upwards. And finally, the consumer price index in Switzerland has been rising again since the beginning of 2017 and currently stands at 1.1% year-on-year. Nonetheless, inflation for domestic goods and services remains moderate despite robust economic momentum and a steadily improving labour market (cf. blue bars). Besides these factors, monetary policymakers may increasingly find themselves grappling with another issue: digitalisation and its impact on the level and dynamics of prices. 1 Digitalisation is affecting almost all sectors of the economy, but its effects are particularly pronounced in retail. In Switzerland, retail trade via online platforms has been experiencing double-digit growth for some years now, while traditional retail has been declining. Last year, online trade already accounted for some 8.5% of all Swiss retail trade. 2 Digitalisation can affect price developments in a variety of ways. On the one hand, the increased competition and greater transparency for consumers that online trade enables may erode the pricing power of traditional retailers. This phenomenon, sometimes called the ‘Amazon effect’, 3 can lower inflation, at least temporarily.