ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss National Bank is well positioned with its current interest rates, governing board member Petra Tschudin told Swiss broadcaster TeleZueri in an interview to be broadcast on Tuesday.
“We always use monetary policy in such a way that we can fulfil our mandate of ensuring price stability,” Tschudin said, referring to the central bank’s target range for inflation of 0-2%.
“And if you look at our inflation forecasts, you will see that inflation is between 0 and 2% over the medium term. And from that perspective, interest rates are where they should be,” she told the CEO Talk programme.
The comments could be seen as a hint the SNB will keep its policy rate at 0%, the lowest among major central banks, although Tschudin said the world was changing rapidly.
Markets currently give a 93% probability the SNB will not change its policy at its next meeting on December 11.
Tschudin noted that the low interest rates made it more difficult for pension funds to invest, but did not rule out negative interest rates in future.
The central bank would only deploy negative rates “if necessary”, she said, but with the current inflation SNB forecasts there was no need.
“We are in a good position at the moment,” Tschudin said. “We are in a situation where monetary policy and the exchange rate are such that the inflation forecast is where we want it to be.”
(Reporting by John Revill. Editing by Miranda Murray and Mark Potter)
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