Hungary's trade deficit narrowed in the first two months of the year but the improvement was smaller than expected and did not trigger further rises of the forint. The trade deficit dropped to 594 million euros in the January and February from 666 million in the same period of 2003, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Friday.
The February figure was weaker than expected, but still showed that export growth remains robust and the current account deficit - a key worry of investors last year - is improving, analysts said.
The figure, however, is unlikely to trigger further robust gains of the forint and government bonds, which rose recently amid speculation that an improving economic outlook could trigger further central bank (NBH) interest rate cuts.
"For the market this (figure) will not cause a big change," said Illes Toth of DZ Bank.
The forint was quoted at 247.90/248.10 to the euro at 0755 GMT, a shade weaker than late Thursday's 247.80/90. It posted strong gains recently amid speculation that the NBH could follow up two recent 25 basis point cuts in its base rate to 12.00 percent with bigger reductions.
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