Swiss surplus hit by gold export swings on Trump tariff fears

By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) -Switzerland's current account surplus more than halved during the second quarter of 2025, data showed on Tuesday, after big fluctuations in gold exports at the start of the year caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policies.

Switzerland, the world's biggest bullion refining and transit hub that processes around a third of global production, saw its gold exports surge at the start of the year.

Bullion worth billions of dollars was delivered to the U.S. from Switzerland, Britain and other hubs as market players hedged their Comex positions against the possibility of Washington imposing tariffs on gold imports.

This risk was removed in April when Washington excluded bullion from Trump's broad import tariffs, prompting some gold outflows back to Switzerland and Britain from the U.S.

As a result, Switzerland's current account surplus fell to 10 billion francs ($12.6 billion) in the April to June period, down from 25 billion francs a year earlier, according to data from the Swiss National Bank.

"Both receipts and expenses for gold trading rose substantially during the period, but the increase was significantly higher for expenses," the SNB said.

CRISIS DEMAND ALTERS GOLD FLOWS

While Switzerland received credits of 28.2 billion francs from gold exports in the second quarter, it ran up expenses of 38 billion francs, leading to a deficit of 9.7 billion francs, the SNB data said.

Total gold exports from Switzerland have been relatively steady so far in the third quarter despite continuing swings in deliveries to the U.S. on a monthly basis.

Switzerland's long-standing current account surplus is a structural factor for the strength of the Swiss franc because foreign customers need the currency to pay Swiss suppliers.

The steep fall in the surplus during the second quarter was not a concern, said UBS economist Maxime Botteron, who focussed more on long-term developments.

"There has been a lot of volatility at the start of the year, particularly related to gold – where demand increased in the first quarter because of uncertainty about U.S. tariffs," said Botteron.

"Now it seems the situation is stabilizing, so gold will likely play less of a factor moving forward," he added.

The Swiss precious metals association ASFCMP said the gold trade was traditionally balanced between Switzerland and the U.S.

"In normal times we tend to import more gold from the U.S. than we export there," said its president Christoph Wild. "But when people are worried or in crisis situations, demand increases and we export more to the U.S." ($1 = 0.7928 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Revill, additional reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Alex Richardson)