Week of Worries — Week of Gains for Franc

The Swiss franc gained almost every day against other currencies this week, resulting in an impressive weekly gain for the safe currency.

Last week the franc was loser even as market participants were worried about Greece and the upcoming vote of confidence. The Prime Minister won the vote and behold: the concerns intensified and the franc rallied unstoppably. This twist can be explained by the future vote for the austerity measures that is even more important and many investors don’t believe that this vote will end with positive outcome.

The Swiss trade balance surplus widened from 1.44 billion to 3.31 billion. On the negative side, the ZEW Economic Expectations dropped from -11.5 to -24.3 in June. Yet even this report wasn’t totally negative for the Swiss currency as it said that “any expectations for a cooldown in the economy are tempered by the persistently very strong assessment of the current economic situation”. The good economic situation in Switzerland and the economic problems of the European Union and the US allowed the Swiss franc to gain 8.4 percent against 10 currencies of the developed nations, making the currency the best performer.

USD/CHF dropped from 0.8490 to 0.8333. EUR/CHF tumbled from 1.2123 to 1.1821. CHF/JPY jumped from 94.32 to 96.41.

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