GENEVA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said Thursday it posted a record 54 billion Swiss franc (57 billion U.S. dollars) profit in 2017, a year in which a weakening franc assisted the economy due to cheaper exports.
The Swiss central bank said in its yearly report that its profit was up from the 24.5 billion Swiss francs in 2016 -- largely caused by the drop in the franc against the euro.
On top of earnings from foreign currency positions, the SNB had gold holdings worth 3.1 billion francs.
The SNB said that it was less active on the foreign exchange markets last year, acquiring 48.2 billion Swiss francs (50.8 billion U.S. dollars) in foreign currency to weaken the franc.
In 2017, the SNB pursued its monetary policy against the background of a global economy that picked up pace and had a favorable impact on the growth of the economy in Switzerland.
The bank said the Swiss economy improved continuously in 2017, but that the first half of the year was dominated by political uncertainty in Europe, which waned after the French presidential election in which Emmanuel Macron was elected president.
"The recovery was driven primarily by the upturn in international economic activity and the depreciation of the Swiss franc, which boosted the price competitiveness of export-oriented industries," said the bank.
It said real GDP in the fourth quarter was up 1.9 percent from same period in the preceding year.
"Owing to weaker growth in the second half of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, however, the annual average GDP growth of 1.0 percent was slightly lower than in 2016 (1.4 percent)," it added.
The SNB said that one euro is currently worth around 1.17 Swiss francs, compared to 1.07 a year earlier. From September, the franc also weakened against the US dollar.
