CEE MARKETS-Zloty holds steady near 2023 highs, other FX move sideways

BUDAPEST, April 13 (Reuters) - The Polish zloty held steady near 3-1/2-month highs versus the euro in Thursday morning trade, with other regional currencies also hovering around their 2023 highs, supported by a retreat in the dollar and high central bank interest rates. At 0751 GMT, the zloty traded unchanged at 4.6525 versus the euro, while other central European peers were flat to a touch weaker, with all units in the black for the year, supported by hefty central bank rate hikes over the past year. Central bankers across central Europe have doubled down on hawkish policy messages in the past two weeks in a bid to persuade investors to ditch bets that they will soon begin an easing cycle. Their message is starting to gain traction. "At the end of yesterday's session, the zloty managed to leave its 1.5-month sideways channel and fell to 4.65 per EUR, i.e. to this year's minimum. Thus, the EUR/PLN exchange rate is approaching the next technical barrier, i.e. 4.6328," Bank Millennium said in a note. "The currencies of the region are still supported by the upward trend of the euro/dollar, although in our opinion it may take a breather after it reached this year's maximum, and the theme of the outlook for the monetary policy of the Fed and the ECB seem to have been temporarily worn out by the markets." The forint, bolstered by the European Union's highest base rate at 13%, traded down 0.2% at 374.85 versus the euro, with March inflation data released on Wednesday underpinning views that interest rate cuts were not on the agenda. "The forint was supported by the data reinforcing the expectation that there will be no rate cuts until the end of Q2," a Budapest-based currency dealer said. Economists at Commerzbank said while Hungarian inflation measures mostly eased in March in an underlying sense, their month-on-month rates were "too high for comfort." "This means that (the National Bank of Hungary) will likely not be able to let up on its hawkish rhetoric anytime soon, which in turn, will be HUF-supportive," the economists said. CEE SNAPSHOT AT MARKETS 0951 CET CURRENCIE S Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2023 EURCZK Czech 23.3690 23.3440 -0.11% +3.38% = crown EURHUF Hungary 374.8500 374.000 -0.23% +6.56% = forint 0 EURPLN Polish 4.6525 4.6535 +0.02% +0.80% = zloty EURRON Romanian 4.9400 4.9380 -0.04% +0.05% = leu EURRSD Serbian 117.2000 117.300 +0.09% +0.09% = dinar 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2023 .PX Prague 1404.49 1402.32 +0.15% +16.87 00 % .BUX Budapest 43274.50 43375.4 -0.23% -1.19% 3 .WIG20 Warsaw 1819.73 1816.28 +0.19% +1.55% .BETI Buchares 12462.09 12434.4 +0.22% +6.85% t 3 .SBITO Ljubljan 1230.11 1230.53 -0.03% +17.29 P a % .CRBEX Zagreb 2252.28 2251.08 +0.05% +757.1 3% .BELEX Belgrade <.BELEX15 870.24 870.24 +0.00% +5.53% 15 > .SOFIX Sofia 611.22 611.57 -0.06% +1.62% Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic CZ2YT= 2-year s CZ5YT= 5-year s CZ10YT s Poland PL2YT= 2-year s PL5YT= 5-year s PL10YT s FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech < 7.15 6.84 6.18 7.18 Rep PRIBOR=> Hungary < 15.45 13.77 12.42 16.30 BUBOR=> Poland < 6.90 6.78 6.43 6.90 WIBOR=> Note: are for ask prices FRA quotes ************************************************ ************** (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs, Boldizsar Gyori and Alan Charlish; Editing by Christina Fincher)