Print Print edition: 2018-05-01

Czech crown eases

Published May 1, 2018 Updated May 1, 2018 12:00am

The Czech crown fell to a three-and-a-half-month low on Monday ahead of a meeting of the country's central bank board on Thursday, while other Central European currencies were steady in thin pre-holiday trade.
Regional currencies marginally extended last week's gains following benign economic signals from the United States and the European Central Bank (ECB). Last week bonds and currencies in the region bounced back from multi-week lows after the ECB played down concerns over soft euro zone economic data and the US 10-year Treasury yield dipped below three percent.
By 1410 GMT, the crown was down 0.26 percent at 25.549, having hit 25.600 earlier, its lowest level since January 10.
The Czech central bank meeting on Thursday might pose some additional risks to the crown, analysts say, as comments from that meeting may point to a slower-than-expected further tightening of monetary policy. "It's the end of the month, there is a (US) Fed meeting ahead, lower liquidity, a holiday tomorrow, perhaps the Czech central bank meeting is also a factor ... Some of the normal flow that would balance this is missing," a Prague-based trader said.