“Exchange Rate Update: Czechs Advised to Act Now for Favorable Exchange Rates”

Most often, Czechs need euros during their holidays abroad, which are used to pay in the destinations where people from the Czech Republic go the most, namely in Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, Austria and Germany. The koruna against the euro has strengthened by almost four percent over the past year.

“If a family were to exchange the sum of 40,000 crowns, which they spend on average per week of vacation, for euros a year ago, they would receive 1,624 euros. But today it would be 64 euros more,” said Port analyst Lukáš Raška.

Since mid-April, the koruna has been weakening against the euro, the exchange rate has moved from 23.46 crowns to the euro to the current 23.71 CZK/EUR. Even in the long term, the Czech currency is not expected to remain at similarly strong levels for a longer period of time. According to him, it may be advantageous for the Czechs not to delay the exchange for a long time.

The development of the exchange rate against the US dollar is similar. The koruna strengthened year-on-year by more than four percent to 21.97 CZK/USD, but this month it rather weakened. Using the model example, a Czech family would now receive $80 more than last year. As in relation to the euro, according to the analyst, the koruna will continue to weaken in the future. Raška thinks it probably doesn’t make much sense to wait for a possible replacement until later.

A big year-on-year change occurred when comparing the exchange rate of crowns with the Egyptian pound. The Czech currency strengthened by 76 percent against the Egyptian currency. Using a model example, when a year ago a Czech family obtained over 32,000 Egyptian pounds for 40,000 crowns, today they would have more than 56,000 pounds.

Czech exchange offices often do not even offer Egyptian pounds, nor can crowns be exchanged in Egypt. A frequent recommendation is therefore to exchange crowns for euros or US dollars on the trip to Egypt, and to make the possible exchange on the spot.

The koruna strengthened year-on-year even compared to the Turkish lira. At the exchange rate today, the Czech currency is 29 percent stronger against the Turkish one. With the current exchange rate of CZK 1.11 per lira in the model example, the family will gain 8,000 lira more than a year ago.

According to Porto, the second round of the Turkish presidential election will have an impact on the further development of the lira exchange rate. The current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a lot of influence on the Turkish central bank – and if he were to win again, according to analysts, the policy of the bank is unlikely to change and the trend of weakening the lira will continue.

In a year-on-year comparison, the exchange rate of the koruna to the Hungarian forint did not change fundamentally. Although the koruna is 1.8 percent stronger year-on-year than the Hungarian currency, the difference was more significant at the turn of the year, and the koruna has been losing ground against the forint since the beginning of the year. Currently, the exchange rate is 15.85 forints to the crown.

The exchange rate of the koruna and the Polish zloty is also developing similarly. Although the koruna strengthened by 1.7 percent year-on-year and the exchange rate is at the level of 5.27 zlotys per koruna, the koruna has been weakening for the past two months, concluded Raška.