* Romanian, Hungary debt tenders watched closely
* FX weaker, tracking core markets
* Spain debt tender also eyed, seen key for risk appetite
By Marius Zaharia
BUCHAREST, June 17 (Reuters) - Central European currencies were weaker on Thursday, with investors wary about debt tenders in Romania and Hungary given worries over their ability to tighten fiscal strings.
Romania tenders 600 million lei of five-year bonds later on Thursday, two days after the government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote over a package of painful wage and pension cuts.
The tender will measure how confident investors are that austerity measures, key for keeping Romania's IMF-led deal afloat, will be cleared by the Constitutional Court on June 24.
Romania has rejected bids at several tenders over the past month or accepted only a small part of the offers as investors -- worried about political risk, social pressure and legal challenges to spending cuts -- demanded higher yields.
Some dealers say Romania could start accepting bids while the risk of an immediate government collapse was off the table, but others are still sceptical as euro zone debt worries keep investors nervous.
"I don't think (the finance ministry) will want to pay the yield demanded by the market," one dealer said. "It is not just about political risk, it is about a sell-off of government bonds throughout Europe."
Hungary, which offers 50 billion forints worth of 3-, 5- and 10-year bonds, may also have to pay slightly higher yields and perhaps cut the size of its offer if foreign demand is poor [
].Thursday's offers will be the first bond auctions since sharp market falls in early June after government officials compared Hungary's debt position to that of Greece, in comments which the cabinet later said were exaggerated and unfortunate.
At 0745 GMT, the Czech crown <EURCZK=> and the Polish zloty <EURPLN=> traded half-a-percent weaker from Wednesday's close, while the Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> and the Romanian leu <EURRON=> were 0.2 percent down.
Dealers said currencies were tracking euro/dollar moves in thin trade, and debt tenders later in the day could be taken as a measure of regional sentiment and influence other assets.
The euro traded weaker ahead of a Spanish bond auction, with sentiment hit by worries over public finances in the euro zone's periphery. A failure of that auction would hit risky assets across the board, dealers said. --------------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT-------------------- Currency Latest Previous Local Local
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today in 2010 Czech crown <EURCZK=> 25.791 25.665 -0.49% +2.04% Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 4.092 4.072 -0.49% +0.29% Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 280.61 279.97 -0.23% -3.66% Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.21 7.21 0% +1.38% Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.239 4.232 -0.17% -0.04% Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 103.83 103.43 -0.39% -7.66% *Benchmark is German bond equivalent. All data taken from Reuters at 1045 CET. Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic close at 1600 GMT.
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