Forint hits 8-week high, shrugging off pause in c.bank's deposit rate hikes

Hungary's forint firmed to an 8-week high versus the euro on Thursday even as the National Bank of Hungary unexpectedly left its one-week deposit rate unchanged, halting a series of weekly rate hikes.

The forint initially dropped over half a percent to 363.30 after the central bank announced the one-week rate would remain unchanged at 4%, but it quickly regained ground. The currency was up 0.12% on the day, trading at 360.90 per euro, after hitting an 8-week high of 360.54.

"This step does not look good at first sight as it goes against the communication of the central bank a little bit, although the forint's strength could justify it," an FX trader in Budapest said.

"But the most important question is how close to the one-week deposit rate the central bank will raise the base rate at its January 25 monthly rate meeting."

The forint has gained over 2% since the start of the year, supported by higher central bank rates, traders have said.

The NBH uses the one-week rate to tackle short-term market volatility and it is above the base rate of 2.4%.

Hungarian government bond yields did not immediately move after the decision as investors were waiting to see how the forint would react, a fixed-income trader said.

The yield on the 10-year bond was about 4.65%.

Elsewhere, the Czech crown firmed 0.12% to 24.559 versus the common currency.

Stocks in the CEE region weakened, tracking European equities that sank over 1% as hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes dented global investor sentiment. read more

Bucharest (.BETI) led losses as it shed 1%. Budapest (.BUX) was 0.9% lower while Prague (.PX) eased 0.5%.

Markets in Warsaw were closed for a national holiday.

MOCTEN

 

In January 1993, EUNET launched the first online news website, MOCTEN.com (stands for Music Opinions Culture Technology Economy News), led by Eric Bach, Teus Hagen, Peter Collinson, Julf Helsingius, Daniel Karrenberg,...  Read more

×