While inflation globally has been coming down from its multi-decade peaks, central bankers around the world are not quite done yet with their monetary tightening campaigns to bring price growth back under control. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by another quarter of a percentage point and the European Central Bank followed suit on Thursday. (Reporting by Noele Ilien; Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Alex Richardson)
(Adds quotes, detail on inflation data, context)
By Noele Illien
ST GALLEN, Switzerland, May 5 (Reuters) - Swiss National
Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Friday that the central bank
might have to further tighten its monetary policy to ensure that
inflation returns to its target range.
Speaking at a symposium at the University of St Gallen,
Jordan said that the best contribution a central bank could make
for the public was to ensure price stability.
"We cannot exclude that it will again be necessary to
further tighten monetary policy," Jordan said, echoing his
earlier comments and those of fellow policymakers.
"We need to make sure that inflation goes back into the
range of price stability," he said.
Data earlier on Friday showed annual inflation slowed to
2.6% in April from 2.9% in March, more than forecast.
But even though considerably lower than in many other
countries, inflation has remained above the SNB's target range
of between 0% and 2% since February 2022, prompting the central
bank to raise rates at its last four quarterly meetings.
The SNB last raised rates by 50 basis points in March,
bringing its benchmark to 1.5%, and many analysts have been
expecting the central bank to hike rates at least one more time
when it meets next on June 22.
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