The Czech koruna opened weak at EUR/CZK 28.57, but quickly recovered on Friday

The better-than expected December foreign trade helped the unit to rebound. The deficit came at CZK 3.4 bn, which was only a half of the market consensus. The full-year 2005 balance was in CZK 41.9 bn surplus, which is the best result ever. Later on, the Minutes had little impact on the FX market, although it showed that 2 out of 6 CNB Board members voted in favor of a interest rate cut. Despite short pause at noon the koruna rose to 28.45 by the end of the session. Some gains of the zloty supported the positive price action. Today the calendar is empty thus the market may wait for Wednesday’s fresh inflation data. Nevertheless, even the January inflation may not release the koruna from current sideways trading. A strong dollar hinder any significant rise of the CE currencies now. Therefore the koruna may stay off the lifetime high within 28.35-28.57.

(CSOB - Investment research)