CEE MARKETS-Forint falters as strong dollar hits FX

By Alan Charlish WARSAW, April 12 (Reuters) - Hungary's forint retreated on Friday and headed for its first weekly loss in three weeks, as a stronger dollar weighed on emerging market currencies. A higher-than-expected U.S. inflation print this week forced traders to adjust their rate cut bets, and Federal Reserve officials said that there was no urgency to ease rates. A stronger dollar is generally negative for emerging market currencies as it lowers the premium attached to holding riskier assets. At 0905 GMT the forint was 0.5% weaker at 391.60 to the euro and has struggled to break far away from one-year lows near 400 hit last month. "(Due to) a repricing in the market of the Fed rate-cut cycle... we can see the dollar strengthening again and on the back of the dollar strengthening we can see some weakness, especially in the forint," said Peter Virovacz, senior economist at ING in Hungary. Virovacz also said that the forint had been boosted earlier in the week by news that Hungarian Economy Minister Marton Nagy and central bank Governor Gyorgy Matolcsy had put aside personal differences, but that this effect was now fading. The Polish zloty, which has been the region's best performing currency this year as traders eye an inflow of European Union funds, was 0.15% weaker at 4.2675. "After a strong start to the week... the PLN/EUR is in a consolidation phase," Bank Millennium said in a note. The Czech crown was little changed at 25.35 per euro. Stocks in the region tracked shares elsewhere in Europe higher, amid optimism after the European Central Bank hinted that it could begin interest rate cuts as soon as June. The main indices in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were all around 0.6% higher on the day Czech utility CEZ rose around 2.5% to a three-week high, lifted by electricity price rises. Its shares also lost a weight this week after Czech lower house lawmakers on Wednesday rejected, as expected, a contested passage in a bill on company transformations that critics said would make it easier for the government to spin off or take over parts of the company. CEE SNAPSHOT AT MARKETS 1106 CET CURRENCI ES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2024 EURCZK= Czech % EURHUF= Hungary EURPLN= Polish EURRON= Romania % EURRSD= Serbian % Note: calculat 1800 daily ed from CET change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2024 .PX Prague 1556.97 1546.890 +0.65 +10.11% 0 % .BUX Budapes 67628.65 67205.07 +0.63 +11.56% t % .WIG20 Warsaw 2482.34 2468.31 +0.57 +5.95% % .BETI Buchare 17049.11 17013.16 +0.21 +10.92% st % Spread Daily vs change Bund in Czech spread Republi c CZ2YT=R ps CZ5YT=R ps CZ10YT= ps Poland PL2YT=R ps PL5YT=R ps PL10YT= ps FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interban k Czech 4.66 4.14 3.88 5.55 Rep Hungary 7.35 7.01 7.01 7.69 Poland 5.86 5.78 5.59 5.86 Note: are for FRA ask quotes prices ************************************* ************************* (Reporting by Alan Charlish and Karol Badohal in Warsaw, Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)