Swiss Franc woes

Yes, quite a surprise. At least lodging and lifts are already prepaid at, what now, looks like bargain basement prices.

Good that you've already prepaid. For those that have not they'll have a rude awakening.

This is not actually a "woe", The Swiss Frank is now worth more.
The previous bottom limit of €1 = CHF 1,20, imposed by the Swiss National Bank since 2011, has been abolished. This was announced by the SNB this morning (Thursday). As of end of trading today €1 = CHF 1,05.
That is the Euro has gone done approximately 15% against the Swiss Frank, or put the other way around the Frank has gone up by 15%.
According to this evening's TV news, 60% of Swiss exports go to the EU. The manufacturing industries are saying this will hit their profitablility, and the tourist trade also says it will cut visitors.

But for those of us actually paid in Franks, it means we have 15% more buying power outside the country. The media are already reporting increases in people going over the border to shop in cheaper Euro-land.

That is the 2-handed nature of economics. Not many of us get paid in Swiss Francs. But if you make your living selling Swiss made products in the Euro zone, you're looking to where you can move your manufacturing right now. If you are a hotelier who depends on the hoards of German tourists, tonight your customers are looking to change their bookings to Austria or Italy.

Well, I remember that when I was a child living in Milan in late sixties, we went to the Swiss border on weekends to refuel our car. Fuel has been always been cheaper in Switzerland than Italy. This is the first day in my life that fuel is more expensive in Switzerland....

Keep in mind that the Euro has been loosing some value against the dollar last months. So these effects, up to a point, cancel out.

There is now a negative interest rate of -0.50/-0.75 to buy Swiss bonds. In other words, big investors who want to buy Swiss Francs needs to actually pay a tax to the Swiss government instead of earning interest on it! It is an unprecedented situation in peace time. Switzerland, being a tiny country (pop < 7 million), amassed the 4th larger volume of hard currency reserves in the World and the Central Bank cannot cope any longer with the buying spree to keep the CHF low.

Last week my $1 bought more than 1 Swiss Franc. Today my $1 buys 0.88 Swiss Franc. To me that is definitely a woe ;-)

WOW! That's a big change!

I just checked the exchange rates and the Cdn. dollar is at CHF 1.37. That's considerably above where it was on my last visit to Switzerland (about CHF 1.05 or so). It's now about equivalent to the exchange rate for Euro.

Perhaps I'll have to scratch Switzerland off my trip list this year?

Step away from the Kool Aid! Welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism: what goes up eventually goes down, what goes down eventually goes up again. This ain't the first time there had been movement with the CHF, it won't be the last. If it scares lots of tourists from visiting hotel rates will plumet, evil works in mysterious ways.