PZAKY Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen SA (PK)

By Leos Rousek

 
  TODAY'S CALENDAR 
  Local/GMT 
  0700/0600 Polish copper miner KGHM 3Q earnings 
  0700/0600 Polish insurer PZU 3Q earnings 
  0700/0600 Poland's PKO Bank 3Q earnings 
  0700/0600 Polish gas firm PGNiG 3Q earnings 
  0900/0800 Czech, Hungary 3Q GDP reading 
  0900/0800 OTP Bank 3Q earnings briefing 
  1000/0900 Polish 3Q GDP estimate 
  1400/1300 Polish October CPI 
  2400/2300 Hungarian MOL 3Q earnings 
 

The European Union is expected to issue mixed economic growth readings for Central Europe, with the countries as a whole moving toward recovery during the three months through September.

The data for Czech gross domestic product will confirm the country's sluggish rebound, with the economy expanding slightly against the previous quarter and slowing its contraction over the year-ago period.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal anticipate a quarterly expansion of 0.5%, compared with 0.6% growth in the three months through June. In annual terms, the economy is expected to have contracted 0.5%--less than the year-on-year decline in the second quarter.

"The Czech economy exited its recession in the second quarter and the recovery is expected to continue," said Jiri Skop, an economist at the Prague-based unit of Societe Generale.

Hungary's economic recovery is expected to have gained momentum in the third quarter, mostly due to rising exports and EU-funded spending on infrastructure.

Gross domestic product is expected to have increased 0.5% from the second quarter and 0.7% from a year earlier, versus a 0.1% quarterly and a 0.5% annual increase in the second quarter.

Hungary and the Czech Republic emerged from protracted quarterly declines earlier this year.

Poland is expected to have emerged from a period of protracted stagnation and grown 1.7% compared to the third quarter of 2012, according to analysts. Poland's central bank is slightly less optimistic, expecting the reading at 1.6%. Still, it will be a marked improvement versus earlier in the year, when the economy grew only 0.8% on the year in the second quarter and 0.5% in the first.

Poland's largest companies are set to publish their third-quarter earnings.

Copper miner KGHM Polska Miedz SA (KGH.WA) is expected to post a net profit of 512 million zlotys ($164 million), about half of that a year earlier, due to lower global copper prices.

Insurer Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen SA (PZU.WA), or PZU, is expected to show a 18% year-on-year decline in its net profit to PLN919 million, driven by lower earnings on its investment portfolio of equities and bonds. This results from the country's central bank benchmark interest rate declining to its all-time low of 2.5% recently.

EUR/CZK 
Latest 0250 GMT 27.060-94 
Previous 2150 GMT 27.060-108 
%Chg -0.03 
 
EUR/HUF 
Latest 0250 GMT 298.29-80 
Previous 2150 GMT 298.51-09 
% Chg  -0.08 
 
EUR/PLN 
Latest 0250 GMT 4.1908-76 
Previous 2150 GMT 4.1917-2003 
% Chg  -0.04 
 
FIXED INCOME 
 
Hungary 
         Wed    Tue 
3 yrs   4.30%  4.37% 
5 yrs   4.94%  5.07% 
10yrs   5.86%  6.07% 
 
Poland 
          Wed    Tue 
3 yrs    2.95%  2.96%(1) 
5 yrs    3.62%  3.68% 
10yrs    4.35%  4.40% 
(1) 2 yrs 
 
Czech Republic 
          Wed    Tue 
3 yrs    0.31%  0.32% 
5 yrs    0.86%  0.89% 
10yrs    2.22%  2.27%(1) 
(1) 11 yrs 
 
STOCKS 
 
WIG 20 
2,468.82-34.78-1.39% 
 
BUX 
18,448.55-279.39-1.49% 
 
PX 
998.84-17.88-1.76% 
 
OTHER NEWS 

CZECH REPUBLIC: The Czech Social Democratic leader will have to wait at least another week to be asked to put together the country's new government.

President Milos Zeman was originally expected to give the party's leader, Bohuslav Sobotka, the task of forming the cabinet on Wednesday. Instead, the politicians will meet again next week. Mr. Sobotka, meanwhile, is to consult with others in parliament to gauge chances for building a viable coalition.

HUNGARY: Domestic violence has been thrust centre stage in Hungary after politician Jozsef Balogh confessed last week to beating his wife and refused to resign from public office.

-Margit Feher in Budapest contributed to this article.

-Write to Leos Rousek at leos.rousek@wsj.com

Go to http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope for the new WSJ and Dow Jones blog on Central and Eastern Europe, covering business, politics, society and more, written by our correspondents across the region.