As trusted partners, the United States Department of the Treasury on the one side and the Swiss Federal Department of Finance and the Swiss National Bank on the other side shared the understanding to continue their close consultations on macroeconomic and foreign exchange matters in their Standing Macroeconomic and Financial Dialogue. The United States and Switzerland reconfirmed they have undertaken under the IMF Articles of Agreement to avoid manipulating exchange rates or the international monetary system to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage.
The Swiss National Bank reconfirmed its commitment that its monetary policy will remain oriented towards maintaining appropriate monetary conditions to safeguard price stability and will not target exchange rates for competitive purposes. The United States reconfirmed its G7 commitment that fiscal and monetary policies will remain oriented towards meeting respective domestic objectives using domestic instruments and will not target exchange rates for competitive purposes. There is a shared view that intervention in foreign exchange markets is considered as a tool equally appropriate for addressing excessively volatile or disorderly depreciation or appreciation.
In addition, the United States and Switzerland share the understanding that:
- any macroprudential or capital flow measures should not target exchange rates for competitive purposes; and
- any federal government entity such as pension funds that invest abroad should not target the exchange rate for competitive purposes.
The United States and Switzerland share the understanding of the importance of transparent exchange rate policies and practices. Both countries renewed their understanding on public disclosure of:
- any foreign exchange intervention operations on at least a quarterly basis;
- foreign exchange reserves data and forward positions according to the IMF’s Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity on a monthly basis; and
- the currency composition of foreign exchange reserves on a quarterly basis.