As the year began, the Swiss franc began trading on the currency markets with a rate of 0.8545 against the euro. The first week didn’t go well, with the franc pushed back to 0.8505 by its end. Would that be a sign of things to come, or was there a different picture to discover here?
Two weeks into the New Year and there appeared to be a trend. The franc was down to 0.8483 on 12th January. However, the second half of the month was better than the first. The Swiss franc managed to move up to 0.8648 by the 29th, and while it dipped to 0.8597 to finish January, that was far better than its opener had been on New Year’s Day.
February saw the franc stay in the 0.86 exchange rate territory for much of the activity on the markets. It managed to finish in good form too, rising to 0.8680 by the last day of the month – almost a franc higher than it had been a month earlier. Perhaps we were expecting a fall from there, and that did in fact occur. It wasn’t long before the Swiss franc dropped back into 0.85 territory – somewhere it stayed for the bulk of March. By the 27th it had stalled on 0.8500, and by the final day of the month that had fallen further to hit 0.8489.
It was impossible to tell from there whether the Swiss franc would rise or fall against the euro throughout April. Unfortunately for the franc, the trend was down. By the time 30th April arrived, the Swiss franc had fallen to 0.8355. It had fallen lower than that in the days preceding that point, so perhaps it could have been worse.
Apart from hitting 0.8406 on 9th May, the franc spent most of the first half of that month in the 0.83 region of exchange rates as well. However, a change was coming. The 23rd May saw the Swiss currency reach an impressive rate of 0.8622. The final day of the month was better still, as the franc finished the month on 0.8676.
From there onwards, the Swiss franc was able to retain an exchange rate that sat somewhere between 0.8500 and 0.8600 throughout the next few months. On 1st August, it sat at 0.8628, and it has not dropped below that for the remainder of the month thus far. Indeed, it has done quite the opposite. Instead of falling, it has risen to reach 0.8778 on 10th August, before rising further to hit 0.8819 on 13th August. At the time of writing, it was sitting at 0.8751 on 28th – two francs higher than it had started the year on. We feel there is room for yet more improvement from there, too.