Hungarian forint starts 2024 with weakening + prognosis

On Tuesday morning, the forint weakened against the euro and the dollar compared to early Monday evening levels. The domestic currency strengthened against the Swiss franc. Analysts expect a weaker forint this year compared to last year.

Weak start to the new year

The euro was up slightly from early Monday evening levels. At around 7 AM on Tuesday morning, the euro was worth HUF 383.6, compared to 383.27 on Monday afternoon, Index reports.

In contrast, the Swiss franc weakened slightly from HUF 412.65 to 411.8. The dollar rose slightly against the Hungarian currency, from HUF 347.22 to 347.5. The euro fell slightly against the dollar, from USD 1.1041 early on Monday to USD 1.1032 around 7 AM on Tuesday morning.

Weaker forint in 2024

Zoltán Varga, a senior analyst at Equilor Investment, told Index at the end of December that he expects the forint exchange rate to be weaker than last year by the end of 2024. However, he believes the weakening could be moderate.

His findings are based on the possibility that the central bank’s continued interest rate cuts could further reduce the forint’s interest rate advantage, as the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are not expected to start their rate cutting cycle until the second half of the year.

Thus, Equilor expects the EUR/HUF exchange rate to be around 395 by the end of the year.

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