BUDAPEST: The Polish zloty led Central and eastern European currencies higher on Wednesday morning ahead of the Polish central bank's rate meeting later in the day while the region's stock markets rebounded from sharp falls earlier this week.
The Polish central bank is widely expected to keep the main interest rate steady at a record low of 1.50 percent on Wednesday. Most analysts expect the next Polish rate hike in early 2019.
In contrast, Romania's central bank (NBR) is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday by a quarter point to 2.25 percent. The bank raised interest rates in January for the first time in a decade.
"Provided that our call for a hike materialises, we could see a short lived appreciation of the RON (Romanian leu)," ING Bank said in a note. "In line with the previous two public interventions, we might see NBR governor Isarescu talking down RON strengthening."
The zloty, the world's best-performing currency last year along with the Czech crown, gained 0.22 percent to 4.1570 to the euro by 0856 GMT.
The crown was flat while the Hungarian forint gained 0.1 percent. The Romanian leu eased 0.1 percent.
"It is highly probable that the (Polish) Council will decide to keep interest rates unchanged, and will not introduce changes in the statement and rhetoric of statements," Bank Millennium said in a daily note.
"We believe that central bankers will want to wait with their opinions for the March meeting, when the MPC members get to know the results of the latest macroeconomic projection covering 2020."
The region's currencies have held up well this week amid a massive global selloff in stock markets, helped by Central Europe's strong economic fundamentals.
As global bourses took a breather on Wednesday and rebounded from their plunge, Central European stocks also recovered, led by Budapest where the benchmark index 1.3 percent.
Warsaw's WIG20 large-capitalisation index was 0.6 percent higher in early trade.
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