By Leos Rousek

 
TODAY'S CALENDAR 
Local/GMT 
 1000/0900 Hungary economy ministry report on 2013 budget 
 1100/1000 Hungary National Asset Management 
           Company report on 2013 activity 
    N/A    Investigation into death of 
           Palestine envoy to Prague

The investigation into the death of the Palestinian envoy to Prague on New Year's Day and briefings by Hungarian officials on last year's budget will be in focus Friday.

On Thursday, investigators found unregistered weapons in the home of Jamal al-Jamal, the 56-year-old Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, who died Wednesday after sustaining serious injuries when manipulating an office safe deposit box. Local police described the incident as an accident.

The incident, which occurred in the newly built embassy compound of the Palestinian Authority in Prague, stirred memories of mysterious assassinations of Palestinian Liberation Organization figures in Europe, linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad in the decades before the Israel-PLO peace accord in 1993.

Palestinian security and foreign ministry officials are gathering in the Czech Republic to follow up on the local investigation of the incident, the Czech foreign ministry said.

In Budapest, Economy Minister Mihaly Varga will hold a briefing about the preliminary data on the country's fiscal budget balance in 2013. The overall 2013 budget deficit could total 2.7% to 2.8% of gross domestic product, meeting the government's expectations and coming bellow the European Union's 3% threshold, Mr. Varga said in November.

Last year, Hungary exited from the EU's strict budget oversight known as Excessive Deficit Procedure. Hungary was in the bloc's quarantine for countries with wide budget gaps since joining the EU in 2004.

The Central European country is set maintain its budget gap below 3% of GDP in 2014, Mr. Varga said in an interview with the Hungarian state news agency MTI Thursday.

Also in Budapest, officials of the National Asset Management Company will release a report on the agency's activities last year. The agency holds government-owned stakes in various Hungarian corporations, including oil and gas company MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU).

FOREX

Latest 0250 GMT 27.475-545

Previous 2150 GMT 27.486-538

%Chg -0.01

EUR/HUF

Latest 0250 GMT 297.51-96

Previous 2150 GMT 297.49-08

% Chg -0.03

EUR/PLN

Latest 0250 GMT 4.1631-716

Previous 2150 GMT 4.1649-724

% Chg -0.03

 
FIXED INCOME 
 
Hungary 
        Thu    Tue 
3 yrs   4.02%  N/A 
5 yrs   4.70%  N/A 
10yrs   5.64   N/A 
Poland 
         Thu    Tue 
3 yrs    3.02%  3.01% 
5 yrs    3.68%  3.59% 
10yrs    4.41%  4.33% 
 
 
Czech Republic 
         Thu    Tue 
3 yrs    0.32%  0.33% 
5 yrs    1.00%  1.01% 
10yrs    2.51%  2.51%(1) 
(1) 11 yrs 
STOCKS 
 
WIG 20 
2,430.72+29.74+1.24 
 
BUX 
18,552.40-11.68-0.06% 
 
PX 
993.85+4.81+0.49% 
 
 
OTHER NEWS

CEE: Manufacturing sectors continued to expand in three largest Central European economies in December but at a slightly slower pace, driven by solid demand for local manufactured goods in the region's key euro-zone export markets.

Purchasing managers' index data, a broad indicator of economic health, released Thursday showed that manufacturing grew last month in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. The easing of PMI expansion rates from levels reached in November in all countries indicate a slowing pace of economic recovery.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The Czech fiscal budget deficit in 2012 narrowed more than expected as the government cut spending and benefited from low borrowing costs, offsetting the impact of a shrinking economy on tax revenue, preliminary data released by the finance ministry showed Thursday.

The country's fiscal gap last year was 80.9 billion koruna ($4.4 billion), down 19.9% from CZK101 billion in 2012 and below the ministry's earlier estimates of a CZK100 billion budget gap, the ministry said in a statement.

HUNGARY: Hungary's Government Debt Management Agency will offer 50 billion Hungarian forints ($230.8 million) of three-month treasury bills at its weekly auction on Jan. 7, it said Thursday.

--Margit Feher in Budapest contributed to this article.

Write to Leos Rousek at leos.rousek@wsj.com

Go to http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope for the new WSJ and Dow Jones blog on Central and Eastern Europe, covering business, politics, society and more, written by our correspondents across the region.