Zurich - The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said Friday it made 4.83 billion Swiss francs (4.28 billion dollars) in profit in the first quarter of 2009.

In a statement, Switzerland's central bank said the main factors behind the result were the rise in the price of gold and exchange rate gains. The valuation gains from gold stood at 4 billion.

The SNB has been taking steps to devalue the franc, particularly against the euro, in part to help the Alpine nation's exporting industry, a major backbone of the economy.

The central bank took a 453 million francs loss from the stabilization fund, set up as part of a large bailout, for toxic and illiquid assets from the troubled banking giant UBS.

The fund had a total volume of assets of 38.7 billion dollars following the complete transfer of assets from UBS last month.