thomas jordan : the swiss economy in a weakened world summary of a speech by mr thomas jordan, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the general meeting of the federation of the swiss watch industry, lausanne, 25 june 2015. the complete speech can be found in french and german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * since summer 2007, the global economy has been in a state of near - permanent crisis. what began as a subprime crisis triggered the banking and financial crisis, leading to a deep recession. this culminated in the european debt crisis. the current strength of the swiss franc is a reflection of this global crisis, and highlights the franc's status as a safe haven, which is especially pronounced in times of high global uncertainty. the swiss national bank ( snb ) has responded to the appreciation pressure by taking exceptional measures. in terms of switzerland's economic activity and the snb's balance sheet, no other country has seen its monetary policy so highly exposed. the decision to discontinue the minimum exchange rate was prompted by renewed changes in international conditions, particularly the growing divergence between the monetary policy stances of the world's main currency blocks. had the snb delayed its decision, it would have lost control of monetary policy and would have had to discontinue the minimum exchange rate at a later date under much less favourable conditions. the end of the minimum exchange rate has major repercussions for the swiss economy, and it was by no means an easy decision for the snb. yet this is not the first time that the swiss economy has had to react to shocks and changes in the international environment, and the experience was often painful. the example of the watch industry shows that even a severe crisis can be overcome. unfortunately, this example is not readily transferable to other export industries. many companies currently find themselves compelled to seek cost reductions and efficiency gains. the economic outlook depends to a great extent on global economic developments. in its latest monetary policy assessment, the snb is projecting that momentum in the global economy will pick up again. this should cushion the impact of the exchange rate shock somewhat, and allow switzerland to return to positive growth in the second half of the year. while inflation has dropped well into negative territory, as things currently stand, a sustained price decline - or, indeed, a deflationary spiral - is not to be expected. overall

jean - pierre roth : recent swiss experience in monetary policy strategy summary of a speech by mr jean - pierre roth, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at a seminar on monetary theory and policy, university of fribourg, fribourg, 28 november 2007. the complete speech can be found in french on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * one continually recurring element in the history of the swiss national bank has been the application of a clear set of rules that we refer to nowadays as ′ strategy ′. the snb ′ s monetary policy strategy consists of three elements : a definition of price stability, an inflation forecast and a fluctuation range assigned to a short - term interest rate. experiences with this strategy since its introduction in the year 2000 – judged in terms of both price stability and cyclical developments in the economy – have demonstrated its value. nevertheless, certain aspects of the strategy have been questioned by academics and by central bankers. these include inflation forecasting under the assumption of a fixed libor, the choice of the reference interest rate, the role of monetary aggregates and exchange rates in the snb ′ s models, and the decision not to publish the minutes of governing board meetings. however, these deliberately selected elements in fact serve to reinforce the legitimacy of the snb ′ s strategy.