US COULD IDENTIFY SWITZERLAND AS A CURRENCY MANIPULATOR
UBS Group AG noted that the United States could possibly identify Switzerland as a currency manipulator, which would make life more difficult for the country's central bank. According to the news in BloombergHT, Switzerland, which has been intervening in the foreign exchange market for years in order to prevent Franc from gaining too much value, has now met three criteria set by the US for manipulators, according to the note prepared by UBS economist Alessandro Bee for customers.These criteria are: High foreign trade and current account surplus, plus large-scale interventions. Switzerland can already be described as a manipulator on the watch list and when the US publishes the next report.The Swiss Central Bank noted that, with negative interest, interventions are necessary to start deflation and prevent recession.Bank policy makers stress that they do not intend to keep the currency artificially low, but simply try to prevent a strong increase in value."The diplomatic abilities of the Swiss authorities and the goodwill of the US will be decisive in this matter," Bee said in a note, adding that the United States can avoid steps to retaliate."Even if disagreement with the US is avoided, meeting these three official criteria will likely lead to increased uncertainty about the Swiss Central Bank's future monetary policy and increase volatility," Bee said.