Swiss Franc Gains After Admission from Swiss Economy Minister - They will have to live with strong Franc for some time

NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The Swiss franc jumped against the euro and the dollar on Wednesday after a top Swiss government official said the nation would have to live with a strong currency and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) stayed away from intervention.

The SNB has been conspicuously absent from the currency forwards market since last week. It did not take any new measures after making an announcement on three of the last four Wednesdays in August.

Switzerland's economy minister detailed plans to offset the currency's impact on the economy but not to directly counter its strength. For details, see [ID:nL5E7JV2LZ]

"We'll have to keep living with the strong franc for some time. It must be a combination of measures that will lead us into the future," said Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann.

The scaling back of currency intervention speculation pushed the euro down 2.6 percent to 1.15341 francs on electronic trading platform EBS EURCHF=EBS, while the dollar slumped 2.2 percent to 0.8026 francs on EBS. currencies/quote?srcCurr=CHF&destCurr=USD">CHF=EBS