POLAND: PNiG Confirms Halt of Gazprom Gas Deliveries
Apr-27 07:46
Polish state-controlled gas utility company PGNiG confirmed on Wednesday that Russian giant Gazprom had "completely stopped" the supply of gas to Poland via the Yamal pipeline after not receiving the payments in rubles from the EU members (BBG).
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcin Przydacz said to the BBC that Poland had ‘taken some decisions many years ago to prepare for such a situation’ and said that Poland can cope without Gazprom’s gas.
Magdalena Rzeczkowska was appointed as Poland’s new finance minister. Rzeczkowska, 48, has worked at the ministry for 20 years, most recently serving as the head of the country’s tax revenue office. Her appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the ruling coalition, which is facing general elections next year (BBG).
This morning, NBP member Kochalski mentioned in an interview that he sees room for more rate hikes and ‘cannot rule out’ another 1ppt as we saw in April.
Yesterday’s headline on Russia cutting gas supplies to Poland generated a spike in domestic risky assets and the PLN.
GREECE: Request to complete IMF payments approved by ESM / EFSF
Mar-28 07:42
The ESM and EFSF have given permission to Greece to make a final early repyament of its IMF loans and an early repayment to the Greek Lending Facility (GLF) - the latter representing the bilateral loans Greece received during the soverign crisis.
The payment of E1.86bln to the IMF will mean that Greece has finished repaying its IMF borrowings entirely.
A payment of E2.65bln that was originally due as part of the GLF in 2023 will also be repaid early. At the end of 2021, the GLF accounted for around 14% of Greece's E350bln debt (so around E50bln in total, down from the E52.9bln originally borrowed).
These early repayments had been anticipated in Greece's funding plan for 2022. No further repayments are expected in 2022 at present. The ESM / EFSF's permission has to be sought for any early payments that aren't made in proportion to the creditor breakdown.
GGB spreads are largely unchanged this morning, given that this was expected.
SEK: On the back foot in early trade
Mar-28 07:38
Dividend season for the SEK, normally starts in April, but as local desk note, these can be from mid March to May.
These are set to weigh on the SEK.
Expectation are larger dividends for this year, and could keep the lid on the SEK, despite, most expecting the Swedish CB to turn hawkish.
34bn are expected to be paid out this week, as per market source.
US TSY OPTIONS: Rolling down strike
Mar-28 07:20
FVK2 114.25/113.0ps, sold at 33.5 in 20k (suggest rolling down strikes)