The Swiss National Bank maintained its expansionary monetary policy, as widely expected, on Thursday.
Policymakers of the central bank decided to retain the policy rate and interest on sight deposits at the SNB at -0.75 percent.
The bank reiterated that it is willing to intervene in the foreign exchange market as necessary, in order to counter upward pressure on the Swiss franc. The Swiss franc remains highly valued.
The bank said supply bottlenecks are likely to persist for some time yet, leading to price increases for the goods concerned. This situation is likely to ease over the medium term, however, with inflation abroad dropping back to more moderate levels.
The bank forecast consumer prices to rise 0.6 percent this year, up from the previous forecast of 0.5 percent.
Inflation is expected to rise to 1.0 percent next year instead of 0.7 percent projected in September. The outlook for 2023 was left unchanged at 0.6 percent.
GDP is forecast to grow by around 3.5 percent this year, slightly bigger than the 3 percent estimated previously.
The SNB anticipated a continuation of the economic recovery next year, with the economy expanding around 3 percent in 2022.
Further, the SNB cautioned that the vulnerability of the mortgage and real estate markets has increased further.