Steadfast Swiss franc still too strong: reports

Despite an expected weakening of the Swiss Franc this year, especially against the euro, the Switzerland's currency remains too strong, newspaper Tribune de Geneve quoted an expert as saying Thursday.

"The Swiss franc is still overvalued, which explains why negative interest rates and our readiness to intervene on the currency market is still necessary," the Geneva-based daily quoted Swiss National Bank (SNB) chairman Thomas Jordan as stating.

While this may be true, Andrea Maechler, one of the three members of the SNB governing board, warned earlier this year that the Swiss franc's value shouldn't be the only aspect to be considered when assessing the health of its economy.

Other factors such as interest rates, price changes and the global situation must also be included when assessing the confederation's economic outlook.

Until the SNB unpegged the Swiss franc in January 2015, Berne had staunchly defended the minimum exchange rate of the Swiss franc at 1.20 per euro since 2011.

The surprise move of uncapping the Swiss franc was matched by the SNB's decision to lower the interest rate on sight deposit account balances that exceed a given exemption threshold to negative 0.75 percent.

Today, the Swiss franc is currently trading at around just over 1.09 per euro, with experts forecasting a weakening of the currency of up to 1.16 Swiss francs per euro this year. Endite