LONDON—The Swiss franc fell on Thursday after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) hiked its benchmark interest rate, while the Norwegian crown surged after a bolder Norges Bank move.
The SNB raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 percent, defying some market expectations of a bigger increase.
Despite an easing in Swiss inflation, currently the lowest among G10 economies at 2.2 percent, SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan recently repeated his readiness to raise rates, encouraging markets to expect a 50-bps hike.
However, economists polled by Reuters had expected the SNB to hike rates by 25 bps.
“Unlike the ECB (European Central Bank) and the Fed (Federal Reserve), the SNB can proceed slowly and steadily with its monetary policy tightening,” said Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank Group in Liechtenstein….