CEE MARKETS-Currencies ease as markets focus on cenbank meetings

By Anita Komuves BUDAPEST, March 20 (Reuters) - The Czech crown slipped on Wednesday ahead of a central bank meeting later in the day where rate setters are expected to maintain the bank's easing pace as inflation has returned to the target range. The crown was 0.11% lower on the day, trading at 25.29 per euro ahead of the decision of the Czech National Bank where a Reuters poll of analysts expects another 50 basis points rate cut. While inflation is back on target, some prices are still rising quickly and the crown has traded weaker than expected this quarter, creating caution among central bankers. "Following a good inflation print for February, speculation had mounted regarding a possible 75bp rate cut – this immediately triggered koruna weakness," Commerzbank wrote in a note. The speculation "prompted CNB board members to emphasise ... that they would only support 25bp or 50bp rate cuts. Despite such verbal intervention, the koruna looks barely stable with a clear weakening bias," they added. The Czech crown and Hungarian forint have fallen this year as their central banks cut rates in a continuing easing cycle. Elsewhere, market participants were eyeing the results of the meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve, analysts said. The Hungarian forint was a touch lower on the day, trading at 395.05 versus the euro. The Polish zloty edged down and was trading 0.06% weaker on the day at 4.3180 per euro, unfazed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's announcement on Tuesday that a motion to bring the central bank chief before a state tribunal was ready. Tusk's government accuses central bank governor Adam Glapinski of having been insufficiently independent of political pressure and of potentially having broken constitutional rules, charges he denies. "Markets seem to have fully got used to headlines of this nature and weaker PLN levels in recent days may thus be an attractive entry level since this risk is off the table for this week," ING wrote in a note. "EUR/PLN has broken away from rates significantly and we think this gap will be closed by a move back to 4.300 in the coming days," they added. Most stocks in the region were higher, with Warsaw bucking the trend and losing 0.7% on the day. CEE SNAPSH AT MARKETS OT 1005 CET CURREN CIES Latest Previo Daily Change us trade close change in 2024 EURCZK Czech 0 0 EURHUF Hungary 00 00 EURPLN Polish % EURRON Romania EURRSD Serbian 00 50 % % Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2024 .PX Prague 1496.2 1495.4 +0.05 +5.81 1 400 % % .BUX Budapes 66107. 65933. +0.26 +9.05 t 39 87 % % .WIG20 Warsaw 2319.4 2335.7 -0.70% -1.00% 5 4 .BETI Buchare 16454. 16369. +0.52 +7.05 st 01 18 % % Spread Daily vs change Bund in Czech spread Republi c CZ2YT= 0 ps CZ5YT= 0 ps CZ10YT ps Poland PL2YT= 0 ps PL5YT= 0 ps PL10YT 0 ps FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech 4.72 3.94 3.43 5.88 Rep Hungary 7.01 6.44 6.23 8.04 Poland 5.87 5.77 5.50 5.86 Note: are for ask FRA prices quotes ***************************************** ********************* (Additional reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw; Editing by Ros Russell)