news conference embargo 20 june 2024, 10. 00 am introductory remarks by the governing board thomas jordan, martin schlegel and antoine martin chairman of the governing board / vice chairman of the governing board / member of the governing board swiss national bank zurich, 20 june 2024 © swiss national bank page 1 / 6 zurich, 20 june 2024 thomas jordan, martin schlegel and antoine martin news conference ladies and gentlemen as chairman of the governing board, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the news conference of the swiss national bank. i would also like to welcome all those who are joining us today online. after our introductory remarks, we will take questions from journalists as usual. questions can also be asked by telephone. monetary policy decision i will begin with our monetary policy decision. we have decided to lower the snb policy rate by 0. 25 percentage points to 1. 25 %. the change applies from tomorrow, 21 june 2024. banks ’ sight deposits held at the snb will be remunerated at the snb policy rate up to a certain threshold, and at 0. 75 % above this threshold. we are also willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary. the underlying inflationary pressure has decreased again compared to the previous quarter. with today ’ s lowering of the snb policy rate, we are able to maintain appropriate monetary conditions. we will continue to monitor the development of inflation closely, and will adjust our monetary policy if necessary to ensure inflation remains within the range consistent with price stability over the medium term. inflation forecast allow me to address the development of inflation in more detail. inflation has risen slightly since the last monetary policy assessment, as we expected at the time, and stood at 1. 4 % in may. higher inflation in rents, tourism services and oil products has contributed in particular to this increase. overall, inflation in switzerland is currently being driven above all by higher prices for domestic services. taking into account today ’ s policy rate cut, our new conditional inflation forecast is similar to that of march. over the longer term, it is slightly below the previous forecast. this reflects somewhat lower second - round effects. over the entire forecast horizon, the conditional inflation forecast is within the range of price stability ( cf. chart ). the forecast puts average annual inflation at 1. 3 % for 2024, 1. 1 % for 2025 and 1. 0 % for 2026 ( cf. table ). it is based on

interest rate policy. you, the private sector, analyse this information and act upon it. unlike the situation in the past, when international businesses were led to believe that the future path of exchange rates was predictable, today we have a more realistic situation in which the business community knows that shocks can occur, and that what is predictable is the way in which the central bank will react to them. in addition to a more stable international monetary order, this new paradigm has brought us many other advantages : lower inflation, lower real interest rates and lower international spreads are additional achievements. after decades of high inflation and even recurrent episodes of hyperinflation in various emerging markets, the last ten years have been marked by low stable inflation in most caramazza, f. and j. aziz ( 1998 ), fixed or flexible? getting the exchange rate right in the 1990s ', imf, economic issues 13, april. eichengreen, b. and raul razo - garcia ( 2006 ), the evolution of exchange rate regimes, economic policy, july, pp. 309442, table 1. countries of the world. price stability has benefited all. consumers benefit, of course, because their income is no longer eroded by price growth. but producers have also gained because price stability helps them to plan ahead. lower inflation and confidence in central bank policies have, in turn, reduced uncertainty about future price developments. the lower inflation risk premium is allowing even industrial economies to grow at lower real interest rates than in the past. and, finally, an unambiguously beneficial consequence of the new international monetary order is that it allows for more efficient distribution of capital. at the same time as the current polarisation of exchange rate regimes has come into being, financial globalisation has intensified. capital controls are being lifted in a growing number of developing countries. in the 1970s, net flows of private capital to the world's poor countries amounted to a little over 1 % of host - country gdp. 3 by the end of the 1990s, this percentage figure had grown by a factor of three. today, there is a broader acceptance of the benefits to be derived from financial liberalisation. indeed, the gains expected from a free market for international capital are substantial. global finance allows for a better allocation of world resources, enhancing the prospects for growth of all nations. for richer countries of the world, there are new investment opportunities to finance the expanding needs of their aging populations. younger and poorer nations obtain access