The Swiss government stands to receive billions of francs from the central bank as its profit surged in 2019. The windfall comes at a time when politicians urge the government to put in place an emergency spending package to alleviate the economic outfall of the coronavirus.
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) made a profit of 48.9 billion Swiss francs ($50.9 billion) in 2019, the bank said in a statement on Monday. It had reported the preliminary result in January already.
After the allocation to provisions for currency reserves of 5.9 billion francs and together with the existing distribution reserve, the bank reported a net profit of 88 billion francs.
Bonus for Emergency Stimulus?
Based on the level of the reserve, the bank had agreed with the government to temporarily increase the payments to the central government and the cantons for the years 2019 and 2020. For the past business year of 2019, the federal and regional governments will now receive 4 billion francs in total out of the coffers of the central bank. The allocation for 2020 will depend on this year's result.
The news about this special payment, which is double of what the governments would have received in normal years, comes as the companies across the country are reporting a slump in activity due to the coronavirus. This has led to demands to use money from the central bank – for instance the bonus payment the government will now receive – for a stimulus package.
