Author Topic: Swiss roll!  (Read 1830 times)

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Offline Colwyn

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Swiss roll!
« on: January 16, 2015, 16:44:54 PM »
One of the most secure currencies in the world is the Swiss Franc; a rock in a turbulent sea. Well it was. For three years the Swiss franc has been tied to the value of the Euro. But it has been increasingly difficult for Switzerland to keep the value of its currency down - yes DOWN! It kept wanting to float up, up and away! Their Central Bank tried to weaken it by getting rid of loads of francs by buying Euros, US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, British Pounds, just about everything to keep their currency weak. The little country now owns the fifth largest foreign currency reserve in the world. But finally got fed up and let the currency float.

The result was that the franc has soared by 20%. Business thinks that this makes Swiss products too expensive to export and the Swiss stock exchange has dropped by 15%. Apparently this came as a surprise. They didn't tell the IMF they were going to do this (and they seems a trifle miffed/bloody furious about this) and they don't seem to have told the European Central Bank.

What will happen next? I have no idea. But I'll be watching out for developments on Monday.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30829917




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