By Leos Rousek

 
TODAY'S CALENDAR 
 
Local/GMT 
 N/A Polish copper miner KGHM first-quarter earnings 
 N/A Polish PKO Bank Polski first-quarter earnings 
 All day Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Slovakian PMs, 
 NATO chief at security forum 
0900/0700 Czech, Slovak, Hungarian first-quarter GDP 
 preliminary readings 
1000/0800 Polish first-quarter GDP preliminary reading 
 1000/0800 Czech March current account 
1400/1200 Polish April core inflation 
1400/1200 Polish March current account 
 2400/2200 Hungary OTP Bank first-quarter earnings

All four main Central European economies will be releasing their first-quarter gross domestic product readings Thursday and analysts expect all countries to post solid growth rates, underscoring a wider economic rebound in Europe.

In Poland, the region's largest country in population terms, the annual GDP growth is seen accelerating to 3.1% in the three months to the end of March from 2.7% in the previous quarter. The Czech economy, the region's wealthiest nation in per capita income terms, is expected to expand 2.4% annually in the first quarter after rising 1.3% in the final three months of 2013.

Slovakia and Hungary, the two smaller Central European economies, are likely to show stagnating but still good GDP growth rates.

Analysts expect the Hungarian and Slovak GDP annual expansion rates at 2.7% and 1.5%, respectively, or same as in the final quarter of last year.

In Warsaw, Poland's largest lender by assets, Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski SA. (PKO.WA) is expected to report a rise of 3.4% on the year rise of its first quarter net profit to 807 million zlotys ($264 million), benefiting from the country's accelerating economy.

The country's copper miner KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. (KGH.WA) is expected to report a 46% drop in earnings 572 million zlotys ($187 million) in the first quarter on lower sales volumes and copper prices.

In Bratislava prime ministers of all four Central European nations are due to meet Anders Rasmussen, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's secretary-general. Talks will center on security issues in the region and Europe posed by Russia's interference in Ukraine's domestic politics.

 
FOREX 
 
EUR/CZK 
Latest 0150 GMT 27.455-78 
Previous 2150 GMT 27.450-83 
%Chg 0.00% 
 
EUR/HUF 
Latest 0150 GMT 303.23-46 
Previous 2150 GMT 303.23-71 
% Chg -0.04 
 
EUR/PLN 
Latest 0150 GMT 4.1868-904 
Previous 2150 GMT 4.1877-921 
% Chg -0.03 
 
FIXED INCOME 
 
Hungary 
 Wed Tue 
3 yrs 3.71% 3.86% 
5 yrs 4.02% 4.16% 
10yrs 5.00% 5.14% 
 
Poland 
 Wed Tue 
3 yrs 2.83% 2.88% 
5 yrs 3.17% 3.25% 
10yrs 3.80% 3.82% 
 
Czech Republic 
 Wed Tue 
3 yrs 0.32% 0.34% 
5 yrs 0.68% 0.72% 
10yrs 1.69% 1.73% 
 
STOCKS 
 
WIG 20 
2421.49 +8.26 +0.3% 
 
BUX 
18277.55 +142.46 +0.8% 
 
PX 
987.48 -6.50 -0.6% 
 
OTHER NEWS

UKRAINE: Many big hedge funds that invest in Russia and the surrounding region have suffered steep losses amid escalating tensions in Ukraine. With their flexibility to bet for and against stocks and bonds, hedge funds typically trumpet their ability to make money in rising and falling markets. But Ukraine has caught some of them out.

UKRAINE: -The escalating confrontation between Ukraine and Russia is inflicting severe pain on both economies and risks derailing the recovery in Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union this year, the region's leading development bank said Wednesday. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a multilateral development lender established in 1991 to help ex-communist countries transition from central planning to market economies, more than halved its 2014 growth forecast for the nations of the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Turkey to 1.3%, from 2.8% in January.

UKRAINE: A provisional price for Russian natural gas could be negotiated with Ukraine by the end of the month in a bid to avert a potential disruption of gas supplies, the European Union's energy chief said Wednesday.

RUSSIA: -Western sanctions are starting to hit Russia and more sanctions will follow if Moscow continues to destabilize Ukraine and prevent presidential elections from taking place on May 25, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said Russia was losing capital as a result of the West's response to Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in the east of Ukraine.

POLAND: -Poland's lower-than-expected consumer price inflation for April was likely a one-off due to low food prices compared with March, said Anna Zielinska-Glebocka, member of Poland's 10-strong rates panel.

HUNGARY: Hungary's parliament, in its first decision in the new term, this week passed a bill to extend an eviction moratorium for foreign-currency mortgage debtors. The moratorium, which also involves debtors who are late with their loan payback, will be in place until the government works out a solution for all households with debts in foreign currencies. The current law only affects debtors who haven't got anywhere else to stay, but gives no value limit on properties in question.

ROMANIA: Romanian state-run nuclear power company Nuclearelectrica (SNN.RO) on Wednesday said its net profit fell 30% on the year to 101.8 million lei ($31.4 million) in the first quarter, hurt by lower revenues from electricity sales, news agency Mediafax reports.

Marcin Sobczyk in Warsaw and Veronika Gulyas 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.