LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The Swiss National Bank on Thursday announced it had lowered its three-month Libor target range by half a percentage point to 1.5% to 2.5%, with the intention of holding the rate at 2% "for the time being." The global economic outlook "has deteriorated more severely than anticipated, which will impact growth in Switzerland in the next few quarters; growth in 2009 might even be negative," the SNB said in a statement. The SNB "was not due to meet until next month," noted Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics. "But with the Bank of England slashing rates and the ECB set to cut later today too, the SNB obviously felt that it couldn't wait that long."
