Implications of the Abandonment of the Swiss Franc-Euro Cap

On the 15th of January the Swiss National Bank (SNB) made an announcement that they were discontinuing the minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per euro. This application is an attempt to visualize at least part of the effect caused by this decision. For the diagram below we have chosen a time line reaching from the last day of September 2014 until the end of March 2015. The first day of this period will simultaneously act as a benchmark for all the displayed values in the diagram. The chart illustrates the relative change to that date for each day in the observed period. For the dates without availabe data (e.g. due to the stock market being closed on weekends and holidays) the values were manually added using arithmetic (linear) progression between the existing values.


Chart Overview:

Swiss Market Index (SMI): Most significant stock index for Switzerland^*

Swiss Leader Index (SLI): Another stock index containing the the 30 largest and most liquid ventures^**

CHF/EUR Rate: Amount of euros that one gets for one Swiss franc

EUR/CHF Rate: Amount of Swiss francs one gets for one euro

Consumer Price Index: Changes in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households

Import Price Index: Average changes in prices of goods and services that are imported to Switzerland

Registered Unemployed: Number of unemployed people as listed by the national institution for unemployment

Swisscom: Telecommunications provider. Represents the domestic market in Switzerland

UBS: Global financial service provider. Represents the banking industry

Swatch Group: Manufacturer/distributor of watches and watch components. Represents the export industry