Hungary struggles to offset forint rise

Hungary’s undercapitalised domestic companies are struggling to achieve the productivity needed to offset rises in its currency, which hit a record high against the euro this week.
The forint, which reached 234.50 against the euro this week, from 260 in April, has been rallying since the central bank’s surprise decision in late February to abandon a policy of maintaining a fixed trading range against the euro. The currency hit a five-year high in June before this week’s record....
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c66b01c0-49ed-11dd-891a-000077b07658.html

Hungary and Slovakia on Wednesday announced unexpectedly high inflation figures, reinforcing concerns about rising costs driven by wage growth and high commodity prices.
The inflation rate in Hungary accelerated to 7 per cent in May from 6.6 per cent a month earlier. The rate in Slovakia hit an annualised 4.6 per cent last month while the Czech Republic remained high at 6.8 per cent in April...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4e371aee-380a-11dd-aabb-0000779fd2ac.html

The Czech Republic sees no pressing need to adopt the euro because its economy is doing well despite the turmoil unleashed by the global credit crunch, the country’s central bank governor said.
“In my opinion, the Czech economy is in very good shape,” Zdenek Tuma told the Financial Times....
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b50af56-30fa-11dd-bc93-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=a955630e-3603-11dc-ad42-0000779fd2ac.html

Best real-estate opportunity in the world right now is throughout the Croatian (Dalmatian) coast of the Adriatic Sea IMO. (The cheap side). Post war, pre-euro, and European all the way. If the dinars hit (ha ha), some of that money will go there. (Of course Im biased because Im of Slovenian/Croat ancestry and we equally hate and love to kill both Slavic-Muslims and Serbians.)