By Jason Hovet PRAGUE, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Dollar gains put central Europe's currencies on the back foot on Monday, with the zloty retreating the most after Polish President Andrzej Duda showed doubts over judicial reforms needed to access European Union funds. The zloty had dropped 0.3% to 4.789 to the euro by 0959 GMT, while Hungary's forint hung off of peaks touched last week, losing 0.15% on the day to 388.30 per euro. «Friday's decision by President Duda to refer the amendments to the law on the Supreme Court (one of the so-called EU milestones) to the Constitutional Tribunal means that the prospect of disbursing the first tranche of funds from the Recovery Fund is delayed again,» Bank Millennium said. Brussels has withheld 35.4 billion euros ($37.79 billion) in COVID-19 recovery funds in a disagreement over Poland's rule of law, and has required reform on issues such as judicial independence and green energy before giving Warsaw the cash. Under the bill the Polish parliament adopted last week, the Supreme Administrative Court will start dealing with disciplinary cases of judges. Previously, a chamber of the Supreme Court handled such cases, and critics said the chamber punished judges critical of the government's judicial reforms. Hungary has also been locked in rule-of-law disputes with Brussels, although markets have seen chances of funds coming, helping the forint in recent months. The forint touched a more than eight-month high in the middle of last week but weakened on Friday when Hungarian inflation in January came in above analysts' estimates, fuelling fears that price pressures will persist and hurt growth. On Monday, National Bank of Hungary Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag told business website napi.hu that there was a good chance that Hungary's inflation peaked in January. «The forint's strength has lost steam... There is a good chance for a correction based on the technical chart, with the first key resistance at 389-390,» brokerage Equilor said in a note. Elsewhere, the Czech crown, which is around 14-year highs, eased 0.2% after data showed a record current account deficit in 2022. Stock markets were mixed, with Prague at a nearly one-year high after a 1% rise on Monday. Warsaw fell, although shares in Polish chemicals producer Ciech surged nearly 8% after its biggest shareholder KI Chemistry said it planned to run a tender offer to buy the rest of the shares and take full control. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1059 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2023 EURCZK Czech <EURCZK 23.7500 23.7030 -0.20% +1.72% = crown => EURHUF Hungary <EURHUF 388.300 387.700 -0.15% +2.87% = forint => 0 0 EURPLN Polish <EURPLN 4.7890 4.7735 -0.32% -2.08% = zloty => EURRON Romanian <EURRON 4.9025 4.8990 -0.07% +0.82% = leu => EURHRK Croatian <EURHRK 7.5330 7.5365 +0.05% +0.05% = kuna => EURRSD Serbian <EURRSD 117.250 117.335 +0.07% +0.04% = dinar => 0 0 Note: calcula 1800 daily ted CET change from Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2023 .PX Prague 1394.81 1380.41 +1.04% +16.07 00 % .BUX Budapest 46203.0 46007.1 +0.43% +5.50% 6 1 .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 1845.91 1848.04 -0.12% +3.01% > .BETI Buchares 12297.7 12251.0 +0.38% +5.44% t 6 1 .SBITO Ljubljan <.SBITO 1180.97 1181.16 -0.02% +12.60 P a P> % .CRBEX Zagreb <.CRBEX 2137.17 2136.79 +0.02% +713.3 > 2% .BELEX Belgrade <.BELEX 871.23 878.54 -0.83% +5.65% 15 15> .SOFIX Sofia <.SOFIX 610.73 614.80 -0.66% +1.54% > Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic CZ2YT= 2-year <CZ2YT= 5.6900 0.0080 +294bp +1bps RR RR> s CZ5YT= 5-year <CZ5YT= 4.9330 0.0250 +254bp +3bps RR RR> s CZ10YT <CZ10YT 4.5920 0.0610 +224bp +7bps =RR 10-year =RR> s Poland PL2YT= 2-year <PL2YT= 6.2660 0.0990 +351bp +10bps RR RR> s PL5YT= 5-year <PL5YT= 6.1880 0.1380 +380bp +14bps RR RR> s PL10YT <PL10YT 6.1890 0.0860 +383bp +10bps =RR 10-year =RR> s FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech <CZKFRA 7.20 7.01 6.39 7.20 Rep ><PRIBO R=> Hungary <HUFFRA 15.20 13.38 11.78 16.09 ><BUBOR => Poland <PLNFRA 6.97 6.91 6.58 6.93 ><WIBOR => Note: are for FRA ask quotes prices *********************************** *************************** (Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague Editing by Mark Potter)
