The era of negative interest rates in Europe is set to end this week when Switzerland’s central bankers leave Japan as the sole proponent of one of the most controversial economic experiments of recent times.
Surging inflation has led monetary policymakers to raise rates above zero and ditch a policy that — by paying borrowers and penalising savers — turned the principles of finance on their head.
The Swiss National Bank, which for years used the policy to counter the threat of falling prices, is expected to raise its benchmark policy rate by as much as a percentage point from its current level of minus 0.25 per cent on Thursday after inflation climbed to a 30-year high in August.