Hungary

The Hungarian government’s much publicised unorthodox plans to cut the country’s public debt level has been attracting a lot of attention of late, both from the media and from the rating agencies. Some observers have been quite positively…

Dollar is little changed ahead of today’s ECB meeting and ADP report; stocks/commodities are steady. BoE holds steady, ECB is expected to deliver a 25bps rate hike; market focus likely to be on comments. Brazilian policy makers focus on…

Moody’s downgraded Hungary two notches to Baa3, matching the BBB- ratings by both S&P and Fitch. Our model has long put Hungary at junk status, and we note that its implied rating deteriorated further in our latest round to BB/Ba2/BB…

by Win Thin Hungary is perhaps taking a more obvious approach to influencing monetary policy than Brazil, as ruling Fidesz party has reportedly submitted an amendment to the Central Bank Act that would give the cabinet sole control of…

by Win Thin S&P affirmed Hungary’s BBB- rating but kept the negative outlook in place, signaling that all is not yet clear for the country.  We believe that markets have gotten too bulled up on Hungary lately and are overlooking…

by Win Thin Markets have given a big thumbs down to the austerity measures announced by Hungary this week, with the forint and foreign currency bonds giving up some of their recent gains.  The government is still trying to go it alone…

By Win Thin, Senior Currency Strategist, BBH Harvard Professor (and former IMF official) Kenneth Rogoff expects some Eastern European countries to face sovereign crises over next 2-3 years.  In a weekend interview, Rogoff predicted…

From Brown Brothers Harriman's Currency Strategy Team Highlights US dollar is mostly firmer on the day vs. the majors as risk off trading seems to be on the upswing, losing ground only to CAD and EUR.  The euro made another attempt…

That was the week that was, it’s over, let it go……. Well I don’t suppose it’s that often that people get the opportunity to enthuse about the International Monetary Fund. Normally you find people like Joseph Stiglitz, or Naomi Klein, who…

Hell, it seems, knows no fury like the financial markets being told you are about to become the next Greece. The poor Vice President of the election-winning Fidesz party, Lajos Kosa, had no idea what was in store for him when he calmly…