The Swiss franc was soft today following the release of disappointing macroeconomic data in Switzerland.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office reported that retail sales dropped 0.7% in March compared with the previous year. That was a bigger drop than experts had predicted — 0.5%. On a positive side, the February reading was revised from a drop by 0.2% to no change.
The manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 48.5 in April from 50.3 in the previous month. That is instead of rising to 51.0 as analysts had predicted.
The KOF Economic Barometer dropped from 97.1 in March (revised from 97.4) to 96.2 in April. That frustrated specialists who had predicted an increase to 97.5.
USD/CHF climbed from 1.0177 to 1.0202 as of 13:40 GMT today. EUR/CHF advanced from 1.1394 to 1.1405. CHF/JPY slipped from the opening of 109.47 to 109.33 after rising to the daily high of 109.69 earlier.
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