Switzerland's Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said in an interview on Wednesday that the Swiss franc was overvalued relative to the euro, but added that the country and its companies "can live with" the current exchange rate. "We like more 1.20 but at the moment we have 1.16," he told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Sao Paulo. "That's still overvalued, but we can live with this, I think."
The strength of the Swiss franc, which weakened to around 1.20 against the euro in April but has since rebounded, bolstered by its safe-haven status, makes life difficult for Swiss exporters. Maurer, who in the past has lamented the size of the Swiss National Bank's balance sheet, which has grown larger than 800 billion Swiss francs ($801 billion), said he believed the bank, which is independent, had "made good policy."