The Swiss National Bank (SNB) President Thomas Jordan said in Lausanne on Thursday that the Swiss franc remains "significantly overvalued". He added that the strength of the Swiss currency is a reflection of global crisis.

Jordan pointed out that the decision to remove the minimum exchange rate was driven by "the growing divergence between the monetary policy stances of the world's main currency blocks". If waited longer to remove the minimum exchange rate, the central would have lost control of its monetary policy, and it would have removed the minimum exchange rate later "under much less favourable conditions".

The SNB president noted that the Swiss economic outlook depends on global economic developments. The SNB expects the Swiss economy to pick up in the second half of the year.

Jordan said that that a deflationary spiral is not expected despite price declines.