Czech central bank chief says experience with FX cap different from Switzerland

26 Jan, 2015

The Czech central bank's experience with setting a cap on currency strength has been different from Switzerland and the bank has a different idea of its exit strategy, Governor Miroslav Singer said on Wednesday.
"We did quite a few things differently from the beginning. We never ruled out the change of a floor under specific circumstances or under circumstances that may force us to do so," Singer told reporters on the sidelines of the Euromoney conference in Vienna.
"Our experience with the floor is so far very different from the Swiss one and...our idea of exit that we communicate differs quite dramatically from the Swiss."
The Czech bank has kept a commitment to intervene to weaken the crown is it firms beyond around 27 to the euro since 2013. It plans to quit after inflation pressures build up and it can see a return to standard interest rate policy. It has said it expected to maintain the intervention pledge into 2016.
It has not faced any market pressure on the crown cap and the currency has been trading well on the weak side of the level, lately due to speculation by some market players the bank may need to consider weakening the currency further to fight deflationary pressures from abroad.

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