USD/HUF extended December 24th gains during the Asian session on Wednesday, while touching a fresh two-week high of 299.920. On the foreign exchange market, the USD/HUF exchange rate was seen quote within a trading range of 299.615 and 298.715.
Still, the upside move may be limited as there will be no key macro data, which could potentially sustain it, until next week.
The spread between 3-year US and 3-year Hungarian bond yields, which reflects the flow of funds in a short term, was at 1.349% (134.9 basis points) on December 25th, unchanged from December 24th.
Last week, the Hungarian National Bank reported an overall improvement of the country’s balance of payments. Hungary’s seasonally adjusted net lending, which includes combined surplus on its current and capital accounts, was unchanged at EUR 358 million during the third quarter, or equivalent to 1% of quarterly GDP.
Net foreign debt, which excludes FDI debt, decreased by EUR 0.3 billion at the end of the September quarter compared to Q2 to reach EUR 11.8 billion.
Additionally, the central bank’s reserve assets increased by EUR 1.3 billion during the third quarter compared to Q2 to reach EUR 28.4 billion.
The US Dollar Index was little changed at 97.63 in early Asian trade on Thursday.
In terms of economic calendar, the only report of interest today will be the weekly US jobless claims data due out at 13:30 GMT. The number of people in the country, who filed for unemployment assistance for the first time during the business week ended December 20th, probably decreased to 220 000, according to market expectations, from 234 000 in the preceding week. A smaller-than-expected number of claims would support USD, suggesting a healthy labor market.
USD/HUF was up 0.13% to 299.080 in early Asian session on Thursday.
