If this tendency persists in the coming months, the impact of oil prices on the 2006 end-year inflation will start to be felt. The effect of oil price increases has not yet gone beyond the relative price changes and has not led to pricing change in the sectors that do not utilize petroleum products as direct input. In other words, the secondary effects remained at a limited level. Nevertheless, expectations have adopted a position that requires more careful monitoring compared the previous quarter. At this point, it should be underlined once more that the CBRT would provide the necessary response, if the increases in oil prices persist and the secondary effects manifest themselves. Another factor that leads to a slowdown in the disinflation process is unusual price increases in some items, such as rent, due to the persistence of the supply gap in the housing sector. Services price increases, especially rent-originated price increases in the services sector, are expected to realize significantly above the general inflation tendency throughout 2006. It is considered that this development has resulted mainly from the structural factors specific to the transition period and will continue for a certain period of time. But it is also believed that at this stage it does not require any monetary policy response. It is predicted that this situation will gradually be back to normal with the harmonization of housing supply. The contribution of the increase in the services group to 2006 inflation is forecasted to be around 2.3-3 points.
Thomas Jordan: The Swiss National Bank’s monetary policy and the Swiss financial centre Speech by Mr Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the first meeting of the “Rencontres économiques de Genève”, organized by Fondation Genève Place Financière, Institut National Genevois, Investment Strategists Association of Geneva, Geneva, 3 November 2015. *  *  *  The speaker would like to thank Samuel Reynard and Rina Rosenblatt for their valuable support in preparing this speech, and Katrin Assenmacher, Petra Gerlach and Rita Kobel for their helpful comments. Introduction It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you tonight in Geneva, a key pillar of the Swiss financial sector. I also feel very honoured to be addressing you at the very first meeting of the “Rencontres économiques de Genève”. Indeed, the financial centre of Geneva is also important from an international point of view. Its roots as a financial centre go back several hundred years. In the early 18th century, the minute Republic of Geneva was one of six major international financial centres, together with London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Brussels. It owed its ascent to its cosmopolitanism. Several factors bear witness to this, including the city’s political neutrality and the fact that it welcomed protestant Huguenots who had been persecuted in France. In the 18th century, close personal relationships were established with the leading Parisian banks and the French court. In this way, Geneva bankers were eventually among the main financiers of France.