Hungary's forint rose by most in week since 2003 on rate views

The forint reached a four-month high as investors buy the currency to benefit from high yielding Hungarian assets, such as bonds. The central bank will lift its deposit rate to 8.25% at its October 24 meeting, a Bloomberg survey of economists shows. The bank raised its rate last month to check inflation, which quickened to a two-year peak in September. „The forint's appreciation was very, very rapid,” said Tania Kotsos, an emerging-markets strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London. „The gains were triggered by the inflation numbers.” Against the euro, the forint gained 2.3% this week and traded at 265.31 late on Friday in Budapest, from 271.58 on October 6. The currency may gain as much as to 262 per euro in one month, Kotsos said. „We expect accelerating inflation throughout the fall months because of increasing natural gas and electricity prices and the raised value-added tax rate,” Ecostat, the research arm of country statistics office, said on October 12. Consumer price index reached 5.9% last month, compared with 5.4% expected by the analysts. (Bloomberg)