MNI BRIEF: SNB Should Review Strategy, Tools, Messaging - IMF

The Swiss National Bank should follow other major central banks by reviewing its monetary policy framework, tools and communications, a report by the International Monetary Fund concluded. The SNB should continue to be accommodative and FX intervention should be used to weaken the SFR when necessary, the IMF added, while fiscal support measures should remain in place to counter very low inflation coupled with the economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis.

The SNB should also consider purchasing a wider range of assets for QE or funding-for-lending programmes to help it achieve its price stability objective, the report concluded, while a review of greater "home bias" of Swiss investors over the past decade could identify actions that would ease appreciation pressures.

The Swiss economy shrunk 2.9% in 2020, the IMF added, less than many of its European neighbours, with growth seen at 3.5% and 2.8% in 2021 and 2022. Inflation pressures remain subdued, uncertainty high, and risks tilted to the downside, despite some upside risk from the U.S. fiscal package and stronger-than-expected EU growth.