The Swiss National Bank posted a double-digit billion profit in the first quarter, while the value of its gold holdings fell.
Switzerland's central bank took a 2.3 billion Swiss franc ($2.5 billion) hit on its gold holdings in the first quarter, after the price of the precious metal fell, it said in a statement on Thursday. Its first-quarter profit stood at 37.7 billion francs, amid a nearly 40 billion franc gain on the value of its foreign currency holdings (mainly euros).
The central bank also kept earning money on its regime of negative interest rates, taking in 300 million francs in the period from charging banks for holding major Swiss franc sight deposits. The Swiss National Bank's fluctuate wildly due to swings in foreign exchange and precious metals markets, making it difficult to extrapolate one quarter to the full year.
