Central European currencies saw a mixed trading on Monday. While the koruna and the zloty closed barely changed, Hungarian assets posted some losses. The EUR/HUF cross rate edged about 0.5 percent higher amidst jitters about a new Greek bail-out programme and 10 Y yield rose by nearly 20 basis points. Meanwhile, the EUR/PLN has settled below 200 days moving average in fourth consecutive session. Technically, the next target is seen as low as at EUR/PLN 4.1225.
Today in early morning, the figure on Czech trade balance for December was released. Surprisingly, it showed a surplus of CZK 10.5bn which was the highest December’s reading ever. Moreover, the full-year surplus reached an all-time high of CZK 191.4bn despite the rising commodity prices. As usually, recordhigh exports were driven mostly by a car industry.
While the Czech export industry is doing quite well, it is surprising that the Hungarian industrial output contracted by 7.4% month-on-month in December 2011 according a preliminary release of the Hungarian Central Statistics Office. Still in year-on-year terms the growth was solid as the output increased 6.7%. In annual terms there was a 2.1% growth in the last month of 2011.
The Czech economy showed a record-high trade surplus last year.
