mr roth remarks on the euro and swiss franc : two sister currencies? speech by mr jean - pierre roth, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the swiss business association annual general meeting, singapore, 24 february 2000. * * * for more than a year now, the euro has been a reality. it has crowned a decade long process of monetary integration in europe. the introduction of a common currency in eleven closely related, but independent countries is an unique experiment. it is still too early to assess all the far - reaching implications of this monetary revolution. therefore, the thoughts and remarks i am going to express today can only be intermediate and provisional. 1. consequences of the euro for the swiss economy switzerland is not part of the monetary union. it is nonetheless deeply integrated in its european environment through its geographic situation and its strong historical, cultural and economic links with europe. over 50 % of our exports go to countries of the euro - zone, while 70 % of our imports come from there. but, besides that, switzerland has strong traditional links overseas, too. the us, canada and japan account for 10 % of our imports and 15 % of our exports while emerging markets represent 4 % and 10 % respectively. although concentrated on europe, our foreign trade is geographically more diversified worldwide than that of other small open european economies such as austria, the netherlands or belgium. for the first time in its history, switzerland is surrounded by countries all sharing the same currency. even without being a member of the union, it is affected by this new monetary situation. de facto, our trade with europe is already taking place in one currency only - the euro - because the parities of the former national currencies have been definitively locked. that means that our foreign trade is less diversified by currencies than earlier and that fluctuations of the sf / euro exchange rate have an even stronger impact on the swiss economy than the former sf / dm or sf / ff exchange rates. at the same time, a common monetary policy for europe is likely to lead - over time - to a stronger synchronization of business activity in the emu member states. this, in turn, means that the impact of the european business cycle on the swiss economy will become more even and thus also stronger. more than ever, switzerland ’ s economic destiny will be linked to that of europe. today, switzerland benefits already from the technical simplification induced by the substitution of ten

##oni green limited as a consequence of its prolonged organizational restructuring. with the recent heavy rainfall and flooding in some parts of trinidad, we expect further increases in food crop prices. looking ahead, higher public spending through the expansionary 2014 / 2015 budget is already adding to elevated liquidity levels ( currently nearly $ 8 billion ) and may further push up core inflationary pressures. third, the non - energy sector has delivered fairly respectable growth for 14 consecutive quarters to september 2014 and the near - term outlook is for continued steady performance in non - energy output. this suggests the non - energy sector is developing enough resilience to withstand a gradual increase in interest rates. in addition, growth is strengthening in the united states, and this augurs for caricom countries which are the major market for our non - energy exports. apart from increases to the repo rate, central bank has been very active over the past year managing excess liquidity. the main source of this liquidity arises from financing government ’ s net domestic budget deficit. for the year - to - date, net domestic fiscal injections added over $ 11 billion into the system, while the maturity of two central government bonds previously issued for liquidity absorption purposes, also returned approximately $ 1. 5 billion into the system. in order to effectively manage liquidity levels, the bank utilized several tools at its disposal. given the increased limits under the treasury bills and notes acts, over the period january – october 2014 the central bank intensified its use of open market operations and withdrew $ 10. 7 billion from the banking system. of this amount, $ 7 ½ billion in open market securities were issued to sterilize or lock away the liquidity arising from an extraordinary, one - off purchase of us $ 1. 175 billion in foreign exchange from a bank. in addition, central bank rolled over three commercial banks ’ fixed deposits totalling $ 4. 5 billion and facilitated the issue of a $ 1 billion liquidity sterilization treasury bond in june 2014. further, central bank sales of foreign exchange to authorized dealers indirectly removed $ 9. 1 billion from the system over the review period. bis central bankers ’ speeches the bank plans to re - open the un - issued portion ( $ 440 million ) of the $ 1 billion liquidity treasury bond issued in august 2013 as well as use other liquidity absorption measures to rein in excess liquidity in coming months. short - term prospects i would like to turn now to the outlook for 2015. we are facing