Zloty eases after Polish central bank keeps rates steady

BUDAPEST/WARSAW: The zloty eased on Wednesday after the Polish central bank expectedly left interest rates unchanged at 0.1% and said it could intervene in the FX market to strengthen the impact of monetary easing.

The zloty eased after the bank's comments, moving away from the 4.52 mark it had been at for most of the day. The currency was down 0.27% on the day, trading at 4.5412 versus the euro by 1528 GMT.

"In line with our expectations, there was no change in interest rates," said Dawid Pachucki, senior economist at ING said.

"The lack of a decision (to cut rates) today does not rule out rate changes in the coming months. The probability of a rate cut in the first quarter of 2021 is around 40%."

Some analysts think the rate could be cut this year as December inflation was lower than expected and central bank governor Adam Glapinski had said a cut could be possible in the first quarter if there is a third wave of the pandemic.

Elsewhere, the Hungarian forint slid 0.31% to 360.17.

The Czech Finance Ministry sold 13.1 billion crowns worth of three bonds at its first auction of 2021 on Wednesday, facing a second year of heavy borrowing as the state deficit remained high amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Czech crown edged up 0.01% to trade at 26.160 per euro, while the Romanian leu was unchanged.

Fresh economic data from the Czech Republic and Romania underlined the effects of the second wave of the pandemic on the region.

Czech headline inflation eased to a two-year low in December, putting the year-on-year rate at 2.3%. Retail sales excluding cars and motorcycles fell by 7.0% year-on-year in November.

Romania's adjusted industrial output fell 0.6% month-on- month in November, and was up 0.4% from a year ago.

Budapest's stocks were up 0.82%. Warsaw's equities were down 0.94%, while Bucharest gained 0.78% and Prague firmed 0.09%.