U.S. rates, strong economies boost European currencies

Published: 9 January 2006 y., Monday

Central European currencies have reached levels close to all-time records against the euro in recent days, boosted by strong economic performance and a rush by international investors to the region.

On Thursday morning, the Polish zloty was trading at just under 3.80 to the euro, its strongest rate since 2002.

By Friday, the zloty had eased off slightly and stood at around 3.81 to the euro.

The Czech koruna closed Friday at 28.90 to the euro, near its record.

Slovak markets were closed Friday because of a Roman Catholic religious holiday, but the koruna ended the day's trading on Thursday at 37.65, also near its record.

Analysts attribute the rise in the currencies to central Europe's strong economies and to investors ditching the dollar after the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted at the beginning of the year that transatlantic interest rates were as high as they were going to go for a while.

Experts have predicted GDP growth of 4.3 percent, inflation at 1.5 percent and a 3.2-percent budget deficit in Poland in 2006.

The Warsaw stock exchange climbed to new highs in the first week of 2006, with blue chips showing gains of 5.6 percent.

Polish interest rates are higher than in eurozone countries, and investors are fighting to get their hands on Polish bonds.

Šaltinis: AFP
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

The most popular articles

Green jobs the key to a sustainable economy

The EU needs a strategy by 2011 to encourage the creation of green jobs, says a draft resolution by the Employment and Social Affairs Committee that was adopted on Wednesday. more »

Gas supply crises: better protection for householders

Householders should not have to go without gas due to a gas-supply crisis, and such crises should be better managed, thanks to EU-wide co-ordination procedures and interconnection requirements laid down in draft legislation agreed informally with the Council at the end of June and approved by the Industry Committee on Tuesday. more »

Estonia joins the euro-family

Today the Council has taken the formal decision which will pave the way for the introduction of the euro in Estonia as of 1 January 2011 and will become the 17th European Union country to share the euro currency. more »

Deposit guarantee schemes – part 2

Proposals to improve protection for bank account holders and retail investors, and set up similar schemes for insurance policies. more »

Greener, more competitive farming after 2013

How should the EU's farm policy be reshaped and how should it be funded after 2013? more »

European Parliament ushers in a new era for bankers' bonuses

MEPs on Wednesday approved some of the strictest rules in the world on bankers' bonuses. more »

The European Parliament's position on financial supervision

Long before the financial crisis the European Parliament regularly pointed out the significant failures in the EU’s supervision of ever more integrated financial markets. more »

Magnetic Europe: Big plans for tourism industry

New strategy for stimulating tourism in Europe – to realise the full potential of an industry that already plays an important role in the economy. more »

Commission gives details of who received EU funds in 2009

The European Commission has disclosed who in 2009 received EU funds in policy areas like research, education and culture, energy and transport or external aid. more »

€ 30 million EU support for the promotion of agricultural products

The European Commission has approved 19 programmes in 14 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom) to provide information on and to promote agricultural products in the European Union. more »