THE PROBLEM IS THAT OUR RATES ARE USURIOUS:

Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan has rejected a U.S. decision to label Switzerland a "currency manipulator."

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday added Switzerland to a list of nations it suspects of deliberately devaluing their currencies against the dollar.

Jordan told CNBC on Thursday that neither the SNB nor Switzerland itself has artificially manipulated the value of the Swiss franc.

"Our monetary policy is necessary, it is legitimate, and we have a very low inflation rate -- it is even negative at this moment -- so we have to fight this deflation, and the Swiss franc is very strong, so it appreciated in nominal terms over the last 12 years enormously, both vis-a-vis the euro and vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar," he said. [...]

Earlier Thursday, the SNB kept its monetary policy stance unchanged, holding interest rates at a record low of -0.75% and striking a cautious tone. The bank said a second wave of Covid-19 infections was likely to mean a weaker fourth quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021, noting that "production factors will remain underutilised for some time yet."

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