UPDATE 1-Czech cbank to announce policy communication change

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PRAGUE, March 8 (Reuters) - The Czech central bank (CNB), a pioneer of inflation targeting in post-Communist central Europe, will announce changes in communication on monetary policy issues after Thursday's meeting of its governing board.

The CNB called a news conference at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) for this purpose.

Policymakers held a rather informal meeting earlier in March to examine ways of fine tuning communication with markets.

Several officials have told Reuters the CNB might decide to join the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Norway's Norges Bank and Sweden's Riksbank in revealing its outlook for interest rates as a signal on future policy.

Analysts have said giving markets more insight into the CNB's thinking on interest rates could calm market volatility during the three months between quarterly inflation projections.

The CNB has also considered publishing a roll call of policymakers' votes on interest rate changes, instead of the overall count of votes cast for each proposal as is its current practice.

The Bank of England, the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as central banks of neighbouring Poland and Hungary all publish their policymakers' voting records.

The latest push for greater openness at the CNB has appeared to be led by Mojmir Hampl and Vladimir Tomsik, who joined the seven-strong policy board in December last year.

The two have been lobbying for unveiling the interest rate path implicit in the CNB's inflation projections to boost transparency and help steer market expectations.

So far, the CNB has signalled only in which direction and at what pace it sees interest rates moving over the forecast horizon of up to 18 months.

A possible way forward for the CNB would be to publish quarterly averages, or a fan chart, for the 3-month Prague Interbank Offered Rate which serves as the proxy for its policy rate in its forecasting model.

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