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’Hungary for junk?
Gosh, Hungary divides sentiment. (It has also, just as we went to pixels, been stripped of its last investment-grade rating by Fitch.)
Despite our saying not once but twice that Hungary isn’t running out of money in its current crisis,
Hungary: muddling through the EM tide
Something to bear in mind for all that money flowing into emerging-market bonds lately – there are still some hefty pockets of EM credit risk out there.
Remember Hungary?
Barclays Capital wants you to.
Moody’s tires of Hungary, Hungary tires of austerity
Yet more evidence that Hungarian politicians’ careless talk costs, uh, currency — Moody’s placed Hungary’s Baa1-rated government bonds on downgrade review Friday in response to failed IMF talks.
Moody’s reckons a one-notch cut is most likely,
Chart du jour, emerging Europe FX loans edition
BNP Paribas analysts Vivek Tawadey and Oleksiy Soroka on Monday commented on the standoff between Hungary and the IMF over the small matter of a controversial bank tax, among other things.
As they put it:
Behind closed doors at the ECB
The following is a guest post written for FT Alphaville by Shahin Vallee, an economist at BNP Paribas:
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It is becoming widely known in informed circles that the European Central Bank (ECB) formalised actionable agreements for proper FX swap lines (euro vs local currency) with the National Bank of Hungary and the National Bank of Poland in October 2009.
EU to CEE: ‘Non’
Writing on Friday ahead of the EU summit, Erik Berglöf, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said (our emphasis):
There is much to suggest that it was the belief that EU’s leaders will stand by Eastern Europe that prevented a full-blown meltdown last week.
EE meltdown averted, for now
The zloty is up vs most of its significant crosses (CHF, EUR, USD) for the second day in a row — largely down to Wednesday’s widely called-for intervention in the forex markets by the Polish finance ministry.
Oops – Hungary hikes rates afterall
Hungary’s decision just days ago to hold rates tight in the face of a major forint sell-off and all-round capital flight appears to have been a tad shortsighted.
Having failed to quell a growing sell-off across Eastern Europe,