Switzerland's strong currency is a boon for travelling Swiss bargain hunters or those surfing online shops abroad while its healthy economic indicators would be the envy of debt-plagued major economies.
Yet although the local business community is well worn to the refuge currency's lure in times of crisis, its nerve was being tested as the franc rose to new highs against the euro, pound and dollar at the end of 2010.
"It's not a nightmare but it's a risk factor for the dynamics of the Swiss economy," the head of economic policy at the Economy Ministry, Aymo Brunetti, told AFP.
The British pound has lost 40 percent of its value against the Swiss franc in the space of three years, while the euro touched new lows of 1.25 Swiss francs over the Christmas period after plunging nearly 15 percent in 2010.
Meanwhile the dollar has fallen by about 20 percent in a helter skelter ride since the financial crisis bit in 2008. By late December, the US currency was changing hands for less than one Swiss franc, compared to peaks of 1.80 in 2001.
The Swiss government's advisory panel of leading economists in December heralded a slowdown in ever more costly exports over the coming year, helping to pare down Switzerland's economic growth from a 2.7 percent in 2010 to 1.5 percent in 2011.
Even cattle farmers are suffering from the strong franc. Now deprived of subsidies, just 313 cattle were exported in 2010 compared with 5,779 last year, according to the Swiss farmers union (USP).