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Swiss National Bank (SNB) can be called as the top most conservative central bank in the modern world and probably the most away from mandate.
- Price stability is the key objective of Swiss National Bank (SNB), which it has been failing for years now. Deflation has been persisting in Swiss economy, since late 2012. If bond yields are a predictor of future inflation, market is pricing decade long deflation at least.
- Switzerland is the only economy, where interest rates are negative at least up to 10 years.
- Third quarter GDP report showed, economic growth stalled.
- PMI report again reported contraction in the manufacturing sector.
- Retail sales dropped -0.8% in October from a year ago.
If these developments are not sufficient for SNB to act aggressively, it might never. SNB has pushed interest rates to -0.75%, lowest for any central bank, however in most of its monetary policies it has been a passive player, which has led to perish of its ability to act.
Due to its passive actions, SNB is now sitting on a balance sheet, with the size of 86% of GDP, which pose a practical question, how much SNB can do, even if it wants to.
