The Swiss National Bank ended the period of negative interest rates in Europe on Thursday by raising its benchmark interest rate to 0.5%.
Following a jump to -0.25% on June 16, which was the first rate increase in 15 years, comes the 75 basis point increase. The Swiss central bank had previously maintained rates at -0.75% since 2015.
The rate of inflation in Switzerland has reached 3.5%, the highest level in thirty years.

Earlier in the week, the Swiss franc strengthened to its highest level versus the euro since January 2015 as economists began to conjecture about the possibility of a 75 basis point increase.
As the central banks in the area have been actively raising rates to combat skyrocketing inflation, Switzerland had been the last nation in Europe with a negative policy rate.
As a result of the Bank of Japan’s decision to maintain its interest rates at -0.1% on Thursday, Japan is currently the last major country with a central bank in negative territory.
On September 8, Denmark’s central bank increased its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points to 0.65%, ending an almost ten-year period of negative rates.

Most recently, on September 20, Sweden’s central bank raised its interest rate to 1.75%. The Riksbank warned that “inflation is too high” when it announced the 100 basis point increase.
When the European Central Bank increased rates on September 8 to tackle skyrocketing inflation, the euro went over zero.
According to ECB Governing Council member Edward Scicluna, the ECB may continue to raise interest rates, but future increases won’t be as pronounced as the most recent 75-basis-point increase on September 9.