Martin Schlegel, Antoine Martin, Petra Tschudin: Introductory remarks by the Governing Board, Swiss National Bank news conference

Introductory remarks by Mr Martin Schlegel, Chairman of the Governing Board of the SNB, Mr Antoine Martin, Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of the SNB, and Ms Petra Tschudin, Member of the Governing Board of the SNB, at the Media News Conference of the Swiss National Bank, Zurich, 20 March 2025.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the Governing Board, it is my pleasure as Chairman to welcome you to the SNB's news conference. After our introductory remarks, we will take questions from journalists as usual.

Monetary policy decision

I will begin with our monetary policy decision. We have decided to lower the SNB policy rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.25%. The new policy rate applies from tomorrow, 21 March 2025. Banks' sight deposits held at the SNB will be remunerated at the SNB policy rate up to a certain threshold, and at 0% above this threshold. We also remain willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary.

With our rate adjustment today, we are ensuring that monetary conditions remain appropriate, given the low inflationary pressure and the heightened downside risks to inflation. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and adjust our monetary policy if necessary, to ensure that inflation remains within the range consistent with price stability over the medium term.

Inflation forecast

Allow me to address the development of inflation in more detail. Since the last monetary policy assessment, inflation has developed in line with expectations. It decreased from 0.7% in November to 0.3% in February. This decline is attributable in particular to the drop in electricity prices in January. Overall, inflation is still being driven mainly by domestic services.