. so far, the rise in the number of employed has been fairly modest in relation to output growth. this may be due to lagged effects of the sharp fall in sickness absence through 2004. in many companies, the large increase in available person - hours was probably not fully utilised immediately. a considerable share of production growth so far this year may be the result of improved utilisation of existing company workforces. in addition, the use of foreign labour seems to have increased recently. inflation decelerated markedly from summer 2003 and continued to fall in the beginning of 2004. consumer price inflation has subsequently picked up, albeit at a gentle pace. in august, the year - on - year rise in consumer prices adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products was 1. 3 per cent. prices for imported consumer goods have continued to fall. the decline in prices may reflect high productivity growth in the production of some goods and large investments to increase production capacity, particularly in china. prices for domestically produced goods and services rose by 2. 1 per cent in the twelve months to august this year. on the basis of the pay increases agreed upon in this year ’ s wage settlement, combined with the estimates for wage drift and wage carry - over, annual wage growth is projected at around 3½ per cent this year. low wage growth will contribute to curbing the rise in prices for domestically produced goods and services. economic growth among trading partners is expected to be somewhat lower this year than in 2004. in the years ahead, growth is expected to be relatively stable. uncertainties that may contribute to weaker developments include high oil prices and the possibility of weaker housing markets in a number of countries. very high growth in demand for oil is one of the factors behind record high oil prices. in the first half of this year, the price of brent blend fluctuated for the most part between usd 45 and usd 55 per barrel. oil prices rose further this summer, exceeding usd 60 per barrel in august and september. oil futures have also increased. 4 / 7 little excess production capacity in opec countries, combined with the prospect of lower production in non - opec countries, has probably influenced oil prices. at the same time, there are prospects of continued strong demand growth in important oil - importing countries, such as china and some other emerging economies. rising or persistently high oil prices may gradually dampen growth among our most important trading partners. the slowdown may occur gradually and may not be particularly marked, but

have contributed towards switzerland being able to avoid a credit crunch in the past few months. page 3 / 4 zurich, 17 december 2020 thomas jordan news conference it will take some time yet before the economy recovers, and uncertainty will remain high for the time being. we will therefore be seeking to do our utmost with our monetary policy to ensure price stability and to contribute to the economic recovery. climate change and the snb i would now like to talk about the significance of climate change for the snb. we have been working intensively on this topic for some time now. we want to properly assess possible consequences of climate change for the economy, for financial stability, and for the management of our foreign exchange reserves in order to ensure that we can fulfil our statutory mandate at all times. to this end, we also collaborate with other central banks, in particular in the network for greening the financial system ( ngfs ), and we work together closely with finma. as regards monetary policy, we are continuously deepening our analysis into how climate change could affect economic growth and inflation. the dialogue with other central banks is particularly important in this area. when it comes to financial stability, the snb focuses its efforts on determining the impact of climate risks on the stability of the swiss banking system. in a joint pilot project with finma, the snb is currently identifying the concentrations of risk of switzerland ’ s largest two banks in respect of sectors exposed to higher transition risks, i. e. possible implications of future amendments to laws. with regard to our investment policy, in connection with the issue of climate change, we have decided to make an adjustment to our exclusion criteria. since 2013, we have already been excluding investments in companies that cause severe environmental damage, violate human rights or produce condemned weapons. with these exclusion criteria, we ensure that our investment policy reflects the fundamental and broadly accepted values held in switzerland. we are now expanding the exclusion criterion pertaining to the environment by additionally taking climate - related issues into consideration. in switzerland, a broad consensus has formed in recent years in favour of phasing out coal. we have therefore decided that we will from now on exclude all companies primarily active in the mining of coal from our portfolios. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. it is now my pleasure to give the floor to fritz zurbrugg. page 4 / 4