developments in the current account surplus. if these fluctuations are factored out, it becomes clear that the net international investment position has not increased significantly over the observation period. the high fluctuations illustrate how important the other influencing variables already mentioned are in the development of the net international investment position. i will go into this in more detail later. let me just add something here : although the net international investment position has not increased, switzerland ’ s gross claims and liabilities abroad have continued to rise, particularly since the 1990s. in 2016, switzerland ’ s foreign assets were almost seven times its gdp, while its foreign liabilities were more than five times its gdp. by international standards, switzerland continues to rank well above the average in terms of its integration with the global economy, not only in relation to trade in goods and services but also in relation to portfolio and direct investment. as we saw earlier, the current account balance corresponds to the difference between savings and domestic investment. in the international perspective, it is often argued that countries with current account surpluses invest too little or save too much. where does switzerland fit in here? chart 3 shows average saving and investment rates during the period 2010 – 2015 in various groups of countries and in switzerland. saving rates are depicted in red, investment rates in blue. as the chart shows, while switzerland invests relatively heavily by international standards, it also saves far more than other countries. at 24 %, switzerland ’ s investment rate exceeds the average for both the advanced economies and the oecd countries ; and, at 36 %, our saving rate is among the very highest. switzerland ’ s high investment rate shows that the current account surplus is far more a function of a comparatively high saving rate than of low domestic investment. global current account balances let me now give you an overview of the chronological and geographical development of global current account surpluses and deficits. page 5 / 13 chart 4 shows the development of these surpluses and deficits as a percentage of global gdp over the past 20 years. positive values represent a current account surplus ; negative values a current account deficit. i would like to highlight trends in a few selected economies. looking first at the countries which have a current account deficit, we see that the us is among them. it is represented by the blue section of the bar. the pink section denotes all the other current account deficits in the world. in 2016, this group comprised 106 countries. let ’ s turn now to the countries that have a current

chart, the swiss franc has appreciated substantially since the onset of the financial crisis, at times reaching approximately 25 % more than its long - term average. the swiss franc has weakened slightly in recent months, but remains highly valued. the high value of the swiss franc is critically important for the direction of monetary policy. you can see this clearly in chart 8. both inflation and the output gap show a strong correlation with the development of the exchange rate. appreciation of the swiss franc equates to a tightening of monetary conditions. it leads via lower import prices to lower inflation. at the same time, the appreciation of the swiss franc has a negative impact on utilisation of overall production capacity and thus also on general price developments. the swiss federal statistical office and the swiss academies of arts and sciences ( 2016 ), switzerland and the commodities trade, swiss academies factsheets, vol. 11, no. 1. page 11 / 13 it is not only the export - oriented companies trading in goods on the global markets that are affected by exchange rate fluctuations. geographically, the swiss economy lies at the centre of the european economic area. even in the domestic market, swiss companies are in direct competition with foreign companies and cannot set their prices as high as they would like above those of their competitors in neighbouring border regions. an appreciating franc erodes the competitiveness of these companies, too. in an exceptionally open economy like switzerland that is highly integrated internationally, exchange rate fluctuations have a major impact on price stability and economic activity. since 2009, we have repeatedly been confronted with situations in which the appreciation of the swiss franc has led to an undesirable tightening of monetary conditions so that production capacity has not been fully utilised and inflation has temporarily dipped into negative territory. if we are to fulfil our legal mandate to ensure price stability while taking due account of the development of the economy, we have to implement expansionary measures in such circumstances, in order to counter the strong franc. in the current environment of very low interest rates worldwide, it is not possible to steer monetary conditions exclusively via the interest rate channel. in addition to the negative interest rate ( – 0. 75 % ), the snb influences monetary conditions by intervening directly on the foreign exchange market as necessary. the goal of this policy is to reduce pressure on the currency and to make swiss franc investments less attractive. our foreign exchange market interventions do not amount to a mercantilist