thomas jordan : switzerland – developments and challenges in 2012 from a monetary policy perspective speech by mr thomas jordan, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the annual general meeting of shareholders of the swiss national bank, berne, 26 april 2013. * * * mr president of the bank council dear shareholders dear guests once again, the european financial and debt crisis has dominated events of the past year. and, once again, the swiss national bank has been faced with considerable challenges in the conduct of its monetary policy. the crisis in europe intensified in spring and summer and triggered strong upward pressure on the swiss franc. this was pressure we had to withstand. in an already fraught global economic environment, an appreciation of the swiss franc would have caused an inappropriate tightening in monetary conditions for switzerland. this in turn would have compromised price stability and had potentially serious consequences for the swiss economy. the snb therefore enforced the minimum exchange rate of chf 1. 20 per euro with the utmost determination. this called, at times, for a high level of activity on the foreign exchange market on the part of the snb. the extensive purchases of foreign currency were reflected on our balance sheet. in my remarks today, i would like to start by addressing the key developments and challenges in 2012 from a monetary policy perspective and, at the same time, present you with our assessment of the current year. i would then like to turn my attention to the subject of gold as part of our currency reserves. but first, let me begin with the key events in monetary policy. key events in monetary policy in 2012 and 2013 more than 20 months have passed since the snb introduced the minimum exchange rate against the euro under exceptional circumstances. in summer 2011, the swiss franc had appreciated to such an extent that we had to take action. it is the snb ’ s statutory mandate to ensure price stability, while taking economic developments into account. with money market interest rates already close to zero and conventional monetary policy options exhausted, we would have no longer been able to fulfil this mandate without the introduction of a minimum exchange rate. in taking this step, the snb averted the threat of adverse developments to price stability and the swiss economy. the minimum exchange rate provided the foreign exchange market with clear guidance and gave companies a sounder basis for their investment planning. notwithstanding the minimum exchange rate, conditions for the swiss economy remained difficult in the past year. global economic growth weakened, after having already lost momentum

jean - pierre roth : switzerland as an industrial location and national bank policy summary of a speech by mr jean - pierre roth, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the europa forum lucerne, lucerne, 27 october 2003. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * in a high - wage country such as switzerland enterprises can only maintain their position in the face of international competition by a process of ongoing innovation. the resulting structural change in the direction of highly technological and increasingly productive economic sectors is also a prerequisite for strong economic growth. in an international comparison, however, switzerland ’ s growth is poor. this weak perfomance in terms of growth highlights the need for action in economic policy. monetary policy cannot, however, fulfil this role. the primary task of monetary policy is to ensure price stability. price stability is an important locational advantage that switzerland has to offer. moreover, monetary policy can also contribute to stabilising the economy and warding off undesirable exchange rate shocks. it is, however, not in a position to bring about a sustained improvement in economic growth. the result of such an attempt would merely be economic overheating with the threat of a subsequent slide of the economy into recession. lasting effects on economic growth may, by contrast, emanate from education policy, research policy, policy on foreigners and fiscal policy. weak growth in switzerland, however, may be explained mainly by the conspicuous productivity gap between the innovative export sector and the domestic sector set in its traditional structures. the reason for this lethargy of the domestic sector is a dense network of regulations which limit competition and obstruct technical progress. the result is an excessively high domestic price level from which not only consumers but also exporters suffer. growth - promoting measures must therefore aim primarily at wedging impediments to competition in the domestic sector.