Although the vagaries of oil prices represented a major risk to the economy and to price stability throughout 2007, the principal risk capable of dampening economic activity in the second part of the year was the crisis on the credit market, which deeply shook the financial markets and rocked the banking world. Although the volatility in energy prices did not cause the SNB to adopt any particular measures, the fear that money markets might dry up, however, encouraged it to relax monetary conditions in the second half of 2007.
