DISRUPTION
By John Spencer
1972John Spencer Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Government restrictions on buying property and securities denominated in Swiss francs immediately caused a fall in stock prices. Banks were hardest hit because their areas of operation were curtailed. But engineering and chemical shares also slumped.
Probably the toughest of the government's new measures is the negative interest charge' on foreign funds deposited in Switzerland. It means depositors of funds from overseas will have to pay an 8 per cent levy every year on the funds they bring in.
Ironically, the measures which have caused so much disruption among the gnomes of Zurich have had little effect on the dollar inflow. So desperate are dollar-holders to dispose of their funds that an per cent levy is no barrier.
In any case, they now face equally stiff exchange controls if they put their funds into France or West Germany. Meanwhile, however, the Swiss banking tradition has suffered its most serious blow ever.