ZURICH (Reuters), Despite rising inflation and Swiss franc reaching its highest valuation for six-and-a half years, the Swiss National Bank said that it will continue to maintain its loose monetary policy.

According to Reuters poll results, the SNB maintained its policy rate at -0.75%. This was unanimously predicted by economists. It also committed to currency intervention to stop the growth of safe-haven currencies.

The central bank maintained its “highly-valued” description of the Franc, the same language it used from September 2017 to date. The franc’s value has risen 10% against the euro since then, reaching its highest point since July 2015.

The SNB stated in a statement that the SNB was maintaining its expansionary monetary policy. It is thus supporting the recovery of the Swiss economy from the effects of the coronavirus epidemic by ensuring price stability.

An analysis of sight deposits, which is a proxy for foreign currency purchases, shows that the SNB seems to have resumed foreign currency intervention after being on the sidelines for several weeks.

SNB has updated its economic forecasts and now anticipates the Swiss GDP to increase by about 3.5% in 2021. This compares with its September view of approximately 3%. It forecasted growth of around 3.3% in its initial outlook for 2022.

The SNB forecasted that inflation would rise to 0.6% by 2021. This is an increase of 0.5% from September’s prediction. Inflation in Switzerland is forecast to reach 0.6% by 2023 and be 0.1% for 2022, as opposed to 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively, according to the SNB’s September forecast.