CEE MARKETS-Forint slips on central banker's comments, other FX rise on weak dollar

By Alan Charlish WARSAW, May 25 (Reuters) - The Hungarian forint fell in early trade on Wednesday, as worries over that pace of monetary policy tightening overshadowed a boost to emerging market currencies from a weakening dollar. Deputy Central Bank Governor Barnabas Virag said on Tuesday that the pace of rate rises could slow down to about half of the 100 basis point steps delivered in the past two months, dealing a blow to the forint. "The current inflation context, in our view, does not afford MNB the luxury to signal conditions for concluding the tightening cycle, or signal some kind of upper-limit for the rate," Commerzbank wrote in a note. "Virag's comments may not have explicitly done this, but they conveyed a sense that the bulk of tightening may already have been done. This renewed pressure on the currency." A Budapest-based currency trader said the decline was partly due to Virag's comments, but also because the currency had failed to break the 380 level against the euro despite multiple attempts. At 0931 GMT, the forint was 0.74% weaker at 386.10. The Polish zloty firmed 0.05% against the euro to 4.60, while the Czech crown was up 0.13% at 24.614. "I would say that this is part of a broader trend that we have seen over the past several days mostly related to the weaker dollar which is taking a lot of pressure off emerging currencies," said Piotr Bartkiewicz, an economist at Pekao. After climbing 10% in three months, the greenback has slipped around 3% since May 13, with economists pointing to doubts about the resilience of the U.S. economy and whether monetary policy will be tightened as aggressively as expected earlier. CEE SNAPSH AT MARKETS OT 1131 CET CURREN CIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2022 EURCZK Czech 0 0 % % EURHUF Hungary 00 00 EURPLN Polish % EURRON Romania % % EURHRK Croatia % EURRSD Serbian 00 00 % % Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2022 .PX Prague 1309.7 1308.5 +0.09 3 500 % .BUX Budapes 42299. 42978. -1.58% -16.60 t 70 09 % .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 1795.9 1810.9 -0.83% -20.78 > 1 8 % .BETI Buchare 12328. 12253. +0.62 -5.61% st 98 17 % .SBITO Ljublja <.SBITO 1141.5 1140.4 +0.10 -9.07% P na P> 6 1 % .CRBEX Zagreb <.CRBEX 2091.6 2086.8 +0.23 +0.59 > 8 0 % % .BELEX Belgrad <.BELEX 820.82 817.12 +0.45 +0.00 15 e 15> % % .SOFIX Sofia <.SOFIX 611.68 614.46 -0.45% -3.78% > Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republi c CZ2YT= ps CZ5YT= 0 ps CZ10YT 0 ps Poland PL2YT= ps PL5YT= ps PL10YT ps FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Hungary Poland Note: are for ask FRA prices quotes **************************************** ********************** (Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw and Anita Komuves in Budapest; Editing by Rashmi Aich)