Swiss National Bank hikes key interest rate in line with Fed
The Swiss National Bank has raised its key interest rate
GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss National Bank raised its key interest rate Thursday, as other central banks in Europe are starting to follow the playbook of the U.S. Federal Reserve in a bid to tame inflation.
Switzerland's central bank hiked its policy rate by half a percentage point, to 1%, the same pace that the Fed chose Wednesday and the Bank of England and European Central Bank followed a day later. Norway’s central bank did a smaller quarter-point hike Thursday.
The Swiss bank said that while inflation has eased in recent months, consumer prices still accelerated to 3% in November — above its target but much lower than what has been seen in the 19-country euro area, where inflation stood at a painful 10%. It was even higher in the U.K. at 10.7%, while it's at 7.1% in the U.S.
In Switzerland, the half-point hike was a slowdown from the bank’s three-quarter-point increase in September, its biggest ever that ended several years of negative interest rates.
