Seen as a safe haven, the Swiss currency briefly hit a high of 0.94 francs to the euro on Monday following the Italian general election.
"European growth is showing signs of running out of steam, even recession," he said, noting that"these indicators come in a context where the Swiss National Bank has changed its monetary policy". "In Switzerland, two-thirds of inflation is due to imports. An appreciation of the Swiss franc, therefore, reduces the rise of these goods a little," said Botteron, adding that the SNB"therefore has less need to tighten monetary policy" than other central banks.
"High inflation in the eurozone makes the real appreciation much less dramatic than in the past," said Flury. In tourism, another sector sensitive to the exchange rate, the franc's rise has enabled Swiss hoteliers to increase their prices to a lesser degree than in neighbouring countries given the lower inflation, a spokesman for the Hotellerie Suisse hotel industry body told AFP.