CEE MARKETS-Forint dips amid uncertainty over EU funds

       By Alan Charlish
       WARSAW, March 31 (Reuters) - The Hungarian forint
 slipped on Friday, as worries about Hungary's access
to European Union funds and a larger-than-expected trade deficit
weighed on sentiment.
    Hungary had been due to pass legislation designed to address
concerns over the rule of law by the end of March, which is
needed to unlock up to 15.4 billion euros ($16.76 billion) in
COVID-19 recovery funds. But on Thursday officials in Brussels
struck a cautious tone on whether the country had done enough to
get the cash.
    The forint was 0.26% weaker against the euro at 381 at 0851
GMT.
    "In practice there is no deadline at all, it was just an
agreement that they will try to find a solution by the end of
the first quarter... but some of the market players have a sense
that it is some kind of hard deadline," said Peter Virovacz,
senior economist at ING in Budapest.
    Virovacz added that concerns related to this could have
caused traders to close their forint positions.
    Zoltan Varga, an economist at brokerage Equilor, also
pointed to the issue of suspended EU funds, as well as an upward
revision in Hungary's January trade deficit.
    Meanwhile in Poland, the zloty was broadly stable
at 4.6745, as investors shrugged off a decline in inflation in
March.
    Inflation was 16.2% year on year in March according to a
flash estimate from the statistics office. This was above the
15.9% forecast in analysts in a Reuters poll, but marked a
declined from the February reading of 18.4% which most
economists believe marked the peak of the current cycle.
    The Czech crown was also little changed at 23.52,
after  touching a three-week high against the euro on Wednesday
after the central bank called market expectations of rate cuts
premature.
    Budapest's main stock index rose 1.4%, with shares of
oil and gas group MOL gaining 2%.
    The main index in Prague rose 0.3% while Warsaw's WIG
20 was broadly stable.
    The biggest gainer in Warsaw was video games company CD
Projekt (OTGLF), which rose as much as 9.8% in early trade
after the company on Thursday said it would start a marketing
campaign for the highly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 expansion for
June.



                   CEE      SNAPSHO   AT
                   MARKETS  T        1051
                                     CET
                            CURRENC
                            IES
                            Latest   Previou  Daily    Change
                                     s
                            bid      close    change   in 2023
 EURCZK  Czech     EURHUF  Hungary   0        0
 EURPLN  Polish    EURRON  Romanian  EURHRK  Croatian  EURRSD  Serbian   0        0
         Note:     calculated from            1800
         daily                                CET
         change

                            Latest   Previou  Daily    Change
                                     s
                                     close    change   in 2023
 .PX     Prague             1341.32  1336.74   +0.34%   +11.62
                                          00                 %
 .BUX    Budapest           42177.3  41603.8   +1.38%   -3.69%
                                  7        2
 .WIG20  Warsaw    .BETI   Buchares           12119.8  12041.5   +0.65%   +3.91%
         t                        0        0
 .SBITO  Ljubljan  %
 .BELEX  Belgrade  .SOFIX  Sofia     Yield    Yield    Spread   Daily
                            (bid)    change   vs Bund  change
                                                       in
         Czech                                         spread
         Republic
 CZ2YT=    2-year  s
 CZ5YT=    5-year  s
 CZ10YT            s
         Poland
 PL2YT=    2-year  s
 PL5YT=    5-year  s
 PL10YT            s
                   FORWARD
                            3x6      6x9      9x12     3M
                                                       interba
                                                       nk
         Czech     Hungary   Poland    Note:     are for ask
         FRA       prices
         quotes
         ********************************************
         ******************




($1 = 0.9191 euros)

 (Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw and Krisztina Than in
Budapest; Editing by Christina Fincher)