Zloty and florint exchange rates plunge

The left-liberal daily Népszabadság writes about the simultaneous crash of the zloty and the forint. "The matter can be explained as follows: The zloty-euro exchange rate was at almost five to one, meaning that the Polish currency plunged to a historic low for the third time. This is a disaster in comparison with the zloty-euro exchange rate of last July, when the Polish currency was at 3.2 zloty to the euro. At the same time, also yesterday, the forint-euro exchange rate almost hit the 3.1 mark. This caused some commentators here in Hungary to say that the forint was caught up in the zloty's downwards spiral. This view however is totally unfounded. … What can be said is that the confidence of the international financial markets in the Central and Eastern European region has sunk dramatically. … A further reason for the enormous depreciation of zloty and forint is that both in Poland and in Hungary many people and companies have taken out foreign currency loans in euros and Swiss francs, which means they are in debt in these currencies."

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