Czech c.bank says Feb CPI number lags its forecast

...signalling modest price pressures in the economy, the central bank said on Thursday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad gauge of inflation targeted by the central bank (CNB), picked up to 1.5 percent in February from nearly 2-year trough of 1.3 percent in January, data released on Thursday showed.

Tomas Holub, head of the CNB's monetary and statistics department, said in a statement a re-weighting of the consumer basket used to calculate CPI could "lead to somewhat lower than expected" inflation.

The January number, the first published under a restated CPI basket, came in between 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points below the CNB's forecast.

The February figure left inflation below the 2 percent bottom of the tolerance band of the CNB's target with 3 percent mid-point, helping cement investors' outlook for a delay in further policy tightening until at least the summer.