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   1       8               %
 .BETI   Buchare           12328.  12253.   +0.62  -5.61%
         st                    98      17       %
 .SBITO  Ljublja  6       1       %
 .CRBEX  Zagreb   8       0       %       %
 .BELEX  Belgrad  %       %
 .SOFIX  Sofia    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)