A quarrel among President and his opponents in the CNB Governor appointment has written another part of the story. President accused Prime Minister Zeman and previous CNB Governor Tošovký of extortion and threats before his decision to appoint Tůma as a new CNB Governor. None of concerned parties will backtrack and the quandaries have to be reckoned by the constitutional court.
Stanislav Gross announced that he would not aspire at the position of the leader of social democrats and he would support Vladimír Špidla.
The state budget deficit widened to CZK 19.1bn at the end of November from CZK 11.3bn in October. According to our predictions, the deficit should amounted to CZK 40bn, and thus dwarf a planned level of CZK 35bn.
The Czech koruna dipped slightly against euro in nervous trading on Friday, partly due to the euro strengthening against the dollar. The koruna was at 34.65 to the euro late on Friday from 34.62 on Thursday. Against the dollar koruna stood at 39.69 from Thursday’s 39.87 supported by recovering single European currency.
Bonds rose again on Friday. Just prior to the government bond auction, prices on the longest government bonds jumped up by more than a trading spread, awaiting good results in the auction. The results were pretty attractive - with average yield 7.60% and maximum 7.61%, 8.93 bil. CZK were demanded in total. Prices corrected slightly after the auction results were announced, but the mood still remains rather bullish.
Current benchmark prices: MoF 6.75/05 99.00-30 (+5 bps), MoF 6.30/07 94.05-35 (+15 bps), MoF 6.40/10 92.00-30 (+30 bps).
(David Marek)