Currency report: The złoty stops climbing

The EUR/USD, the major currency pair in the world, remained in a horizontal trend throughout the  week. After declining to $1.4580 on the last day of the year, it began slowly rebounding, then jumped all the way to $1.4790 on Friday after the publication of December's non-farm payroll data from the US showed a basically unchanged figure of 18,000 new jobs.

The Polish złoty stopped advancing against the euro and the Swiss franc. Worse performance on global equities markets caused risk aversion to increase, which in turn caused investors to close positions on more risky investments. The EUR/PLN climbed from zł.3.5820 all the way to zł.3.6015, reaching zł.3.6150 on Wednesday.

Those who have taken loans denomiated in Swiss francs have reason to be displeased. Higher-than-expected inflation in Switzerland and the possibility of interest rate hikes caused the CHF/PLN to advance from zł.2.1590 to zł.2.2010. Analysts expect that Swiss interest rates will jump even to 3.25 percent (from the current 2.75 percent), making credit payments more expensive.

The only currency the złoty gained against was the weakening US dollar. Following a climb to zł.2.4670, the USD/PLN tumbled to zł.2.4320 on Friday's payroll data. L

Adam Narczewski, X-Trade Brokers Dom Maklerski S.A.