By Alan Charlish WARSAW, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The forint was the biggest faller among central European currencies on Friday, as markets eyed a ratings review for Hungary, global gas prices and a highly anticipated U.S. jobs report. Moody's will announce its ratings decision for Hungary this evening, with some economists expecting the country's stable outlook to be cut to negative due to its widening budget deficit and slowing economy. "We can think that the Moody's review in the evening will weaken the forint, most likely changing the current stable outlook to negative," said Zoltan Varga, an analyst at brokerage Equilor. At 0853 GMT the forint was 0.63% weaker against the euro at 383.95. A Budapest-based trader said that markets were watching U.S. payrolls data, which is scheduled for release on Friday, which is likely to inform the path for Federal Reserve policy over the near term. Peter Virovacz, Hungary's senior economist at ING said that rising gas prices could also be affecting the forint and the Czech crown, which was 0.19% weaker at 24.115. "I guess we can blame the gas prices once again, it seems the Australian Chevron strike is getting closer and closer...gas prices in the world have moved higher," he said. Chevron workers at two of Australia's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities have rejected a company pay and conditions offer, a union alliance said on Friday, and planned work stoppages will go ahead next week pending another deal. Meanwhile, the Polish zloty was 0.11% softer at 4.4755. "In general, all three currencies are in a mild downturn recently due to a stronger dollar and deteriorating growth prospects in the region," Bank Pekao economist Piotr Bartkiewicz said. "I would add that the PLN has been quite resilient in recent days." CEE SNAPSHOT AT MARKETS 1053 CET CURRENCI ES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2023 EURCZK Czech EURHUF Hungary EURPLN Polish EURRON Romania EURRSD Serbian Note: calculated from 1800 CET daily change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2023 .PX Prague 1347.03 1340.790 +0.47% +12.09% 0 .BUX Budapes 56133.79 55775.02 +0.64% +28.18% t .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 2035.04 2027.38 +0.38% +13.56% > .BETI Buchare 13314.50 13256.21 +0.44% +14.15% st Spread Daily vs Bund change in Czech spread Republi c CZ2YT= CZ5YT= CZ10YT Poland PL2YT= PL5YT= PL10YT FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interban k Czech Hungary Poland Note: are for ask FRA prices quotes ********************************************** **************** (Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw and Boldizsar Gyori in Budapest)
