The Swiss National Bank (SNB) closed the first quarter with a loss of CHF 32.8 billion.
This was mainly due to valuation losses on foreign exchange holdings, as the SNB announced on Thursday.
The loss on foreign currency positions was therefore CHF 36.8 billion.
The gold holdings, on the other hand, were worth 4.2 billion francs more.
In the previous year, the SNB reported a profit of CHF 37.7 billion after the first three months, and then a profit of CHF 26.3 billion for the whole of 2021.
The result of the central bank depends on fluctuations in the value of its foreign currency reserves, which are worth hundreds of billions of francs and are partly invested in shares and bonds from abroad.
The central bank buys foreign currencies in order to prevent an economically damaging appreciation of the franc, which is in demand as a safe haven in times of crisis.