Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.19% to 1.0932 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 13(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The markets are digesting ECB’s actions and an easing in US-Chinese rhetoric. Next week features the FOMC meeting and three other major central banks (Japan, Switzerland, and Norway). The US equity rally that saw the S&P 500 edge closer to the record high set in late July...
Read More »Housing vacancies rise in 20 Swiss cantons
© Ppvector | Dreamstime.com Recent figures show an annual 4.2% rise in the number of vacant homes in Switzerland, extending a trend that started 10 years ago, according to the Federal Statistical Office. At the start of June 2019, there were 75,323 vacant homes, representing 1.66% of Switzerland’s total stock of homes. However, high vacancy rates in some regions masked low ones in others. While cantons such as Solothurn (3.40%), Thurgau (2.65%), Jura (2.59%), Aargau...
Read More »The Obligatory Europe QE Review
If Mario Draghi wanted to wow them, this wasn’t it. Maybe he couldn’t, handcuffed already by what seems to have been significant dissent in the ranks. And not just the Germans this time. Widespread dissatisfaction with what is now an idea whose time may have finally arrived. There really isn’t anything to this QE business. But we already knew that. American officials knew it in June 2003 when the FOMC got together to savage the Bank of Japan for their lack of...
Read More »The remarkable rise of GDP per capita in Switzerland
© Mr.siwabud Veerapaisarn | Dreamstime.com In 1998, GDP per person in Switzerland was CHF 59,693. Recently published statistics put the figure at CHF 80,986 in 2018, a rise of 36%. When Swiss GDP per capita is expressed in globally comparable US dollar terms its rise is even greater. In US dollar terms Swiss GDP per capita grew from US$ 41,497 to US$ 82,839 between 1998 and 2018, a rise of 100%. In Germany the same figure went from US$ 27,341 to US$ 48,196, a rise of...
Read More »FX Daily, September 12: Focus on the ECB, while the Dollar Slips below CNY7.09
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.13% to 1.0914 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 12(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Some gestures in the US-China trade spat have given the market the reason to do what it had been doing, and that is taking on more risk. Equities are higher in Asia Pacific and opened in Europe higher before slipping. The MSCI Asia Pacific and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 are advancing...
Read More »100-franc note enters circulation today
SNB banknote app with information on all new denominations Issuance of the new 100-franc note presented a week ago begins today, 12 September. The complete version of the Swiss National Bank’s ‘Swiss Banknotes’ app is now also available. It has been updated to include the 100-franc note and features information on all six new denominations. The app, which has been downloaded some 123,000 times, can be obtained free of charge from the Apple (apps.apple.com) and Google...
Read More »Swiss Producer and Import Price Index in August 2019: -1.9 percent YoY, -0,2 percent MoM
The Producer Price Index (PPI) or officially named “Producer and Import Price Index” describes the changes in prices for producers and importers. For us it is interesting because it is used in the formula for the Real Effective Exchange Rate. When producers and importers profit on lower price changes when compared to other countries, then the Swiss Franc reduces its overvaluation. The Swiss PPI values of -6% in 2015 (see below), compared to -3% in Europe or -1% in...
Read More »CHF is ‘not strong in real terms’ – no need for SNB intervention
A note from Standard Chartered on the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss franc. The SNB monetary policy meeting is next week, September 19. In brief, Stan Chart argue the franc is not strong in real terms adjusting EUR/CHF for inflation leaves CHF around 10% weaker than (non-adjusted) current spot no need for SNB to intervene to try to weaken it therefore the SNB is not likely to cut rates at their meeting, nor intervene in forex markets in the near term EUR/CHF...
Read More »Dollar (In) Demand
The last time was bad, no getting around it. From the end of 2014 until the first months of 2016, the Chinese economy was in a perilous state. Dramatic weakness had emerged which had seemed impossible to reconcile with conventions about the country. Committed to growth over everything, and I mean everything, China was the one country the world thought it could count on for being immune to the widespread economic sickness. That’s why in early 2016 authorities...
Read More »FX Daily, September 11: Dollar is Firm as ECB is Awaited
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.31% to 1.092 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 11(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Global equities are extending their recent gains while bonds remain on the defensive. The dollar is firm. There is a degree of optimism that is prevailing. There are some more overtures in terms of US-Chinese trade. In Hong Kong, developers and banks led an equity rally on ideas...
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