Polish Zloty Heads for 2nd Monthly Drop on Europe Debt Concern

Poland’s zloty headed for a second monthly retreat on concern the euro area debt crisis will escalate, driving investors from assets perceived to be riskier.

The zloty was little changed at 4.1775 per euro by 12:29 p.m. in Warsaw, taking its April losses to 0.6 percent. Yields on 10-year government bonds were also little changed at 5.389 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Spain’s credit rating was cut yesterday for the second time this year by Standard & Poor’s on concern the nation will have to provide further support to the banking industry. Emerging- market stocks headed for a second month of declines.

“Anyone who had doubted that the debt crisis would raise its head again is likely to have abandoned that hope now,” Lutz Karpowitz, a Frankfurt-based strategist at Commerzbank AG, wrote in a research report today, citing the Spanish downgrade.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net; Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at kchamonikola@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net