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WARSAW — The Hungarian forint firmed on Friday,

outperforming other regional currencies, supported by a rate hike earlier this

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week and stabilizing gas prices.

The forint came under pressure last month from soaring energy prices as

Hungary is higly dependent on energy imports.

A bright spot came in for investors on Tuesday when the National Bank of

Hungary raised its base rate by 100 basis points to 11.75% and announced new

measures that aim to tighten currency liquidity in the interbank market.

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“The stabilization of gas prices is helping the forint as it will help the

budget and the external balance as well,” an FX trader in Budapest said. “The

rate hike and the central bank’s new measures are also supportive.”

Gas prices dropped this week from recent highs, with Dutch and British

wholesale gas prices mostly down on Thursday due to comfortable storage levels,

price cap concerns and continued EU gas demand reduction proposals.

As of 0803 GMT, the forint was 0.56% firmer against the euro at 399.90.

Other central European currencies were broadly stable, as markets looked

ahead to a key U.S. payroll data that could strengthen expectations of

aggressive rate hikes in the world’s largest economy.

The Polish zloty was 0.05% weaker at 4.7175 while the Czech crown

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was stable at 24.494.

If the U.S. nonfarm payroll data is strong, as expected, analysts said it

would support a continuation of aggressive rate hikes from the Fed, which could

further boost the U.S. dollar.

A stronger dollar is negative for CEE currencies, as it makes riskier assets

less attractive to investors.

“If the nonfarm payrolls show a positive situation on the labor market …

it will mean that the expectations for a 75-basis-point rate hike by the Federal

Reserve will rise,” said Mateusz Sutowicz, a financial market analyst at Bank

Millennium.

“This will be positive for the dollar but should be slightly negative for

the emerging market currencies.”

CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1003

CET

CURRENCIES

Latest Previous Daily Change

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bid close change in

2022

EURCZK= Czech 24.4940 24.4880 -0.02% +1.54

crown %

EURHUF= Hungary 399.9000 402.1500 +0.56 -7.63%

forint %

EURPLN= Polish 4.7175 4.7150 -0.05% -2.68%

zloty

EURRON= Romania 4.8361 4.8334 -0.06% +2.32

n leu %

EURHRK= Croatia 7.5200 7.5205 +0.01 -0.03%

n kuna %

EURRSD= Serbian 117.3300 117.3700 +0.03 +0.21

dinar % %

Note: calculated from 1800

daily CET

change

Latest Previous Daily Change

close change in

2022

.PX Prague 1157.24 1153.7900 +0.30

%

.BUX Budapes 41726.00 41447.57 +0.67 -17.73

t % %

.WIG20 Warsaw 1470.60 1462.59 +0.55 -35.13

% %

.BETI Buchare 11862.85 11867.68 -0.04% -9.18%

st

.SBITOP Ljublja 1117.25 1120.14 -0.26% -11.01

na %

.CRBEX Zagreb 1988.60 1991.93 -0.17% -4.36%

.BELEX15 Belgrad 851.08 848.50 +0.30 +3.69

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e % %

.SOFIX Sofia 613.21 615.79 -0.42% -3.53%

Yield Yield Spread Daily

(bid) change vs change

Bund in

Czech spread

Republi

c

CZ2YT=RR 6.0880 -0.1320 +489b -15bps

2-year ps

CZ5YT=RR 5.2330 -0.0350 +384b -5bps

5-year ps

CZ10YT=RR 4.8300 0.0010 +324b -2bps

10-year ps

Poland

PL2YT=RR 7.1180 -0.0340 +592b -6bps

2-year ps

PL5YT=RR 6.7190 0.0000 +533b -2bps

5-year ps

PL10YT=RR 6.1610 0.0190 +457b +0bps

10-year ps

FORWARD

3×6 6×9 9×12 3M

interb

ank

Czech

Hungary

Poland

Note: are for ask prices

FRA

quotes

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(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anita Komuves; Editing by Sherry

Jacob-Phillips)