The Hungarian forint took a beating on Thursday following the surprise decision by the Swiss National Bank to quit pegging the franc to the euro. And while the Swiss currency grew strongly against the euro along with all other local currencies, Hungarians were particularly concerned because of thousands of outstanding home mortgages still denominated in francs. The forint had been sailing along at sub-320 forints to the euro levels for some time, dipping down to HUF 316 as recently as last week. But Thursday’s pandemonium on forex exchanges left the Hungarian currency above HUF 322 per euro. The problem of foreign currency mortgages has been tackled aggressively by the government of Viktor Orban, who has insisted the banks must bear much of the pain. It will be seen in the coming weeks and months whether his controversial measures, interpreted as anti-business by foreign observers, proves to have been fortunate.
