Exchange rates and prices: Evidence from the 2015 Swiss Franc appreciation

Arbeitspapier

The removal of the lower bound on the EUR/CHF exchange rate in January 2015 provides a unique setting to study the implications of a large and sudden appreciation in an otherwise stable macroeconomic environment. Using transaction-level data on non-durable goods purchases by Swiss consumers, we measure the response of border and consumer retail prices to the CHF appreciation and how household expenditures responded to these price changes. Consumer prices of imported goods and of competing Swiss-produced goods fell by more in product categories with larger reductions in border prices and a lower share of CHF-invoiced border prices. These price changes resulted in substantial expenditure switching between imported and Swiss-produced goods. While the frequency of import retail price reductions rose in the aftermath of the appreciation, the average size of these price reductions fell (and more so in product categories with larger border price declines and a lower share of CHF-invoiced border prices), contributing to low pass-through into import prices.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WWZ Working Paper ; No. 2018/23

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Price Level; Inflation; Deflation ; Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General ; Foreign Exchange ; Open Economy Macroeconomics ; Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
• Subject: large exchange rate shocks ; exchange rate pass-through ; invoicing currency ; expenditure switching ; price-setting ; nominal and real rigidities ; monetary policy

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Auer, Raphael A. ; Burstein, Ariel T. ; Lein-Rupprecht, Sarah M.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Basel, Center of Business and Economics (WWZ)
• (where): Basel
• (when): 2018

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5451/unibas-ep65474
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/185823
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET