UPDATE 1-Czech c.banker says rate hike timing up in air

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PRAGUE, March 12 (Reuters) - Czech central bank (CNB) board member Mojmir Hampl said on Monday any potential increase in interest rates was further off than seemed likely late last year, reinforcing comments he made in January.

Hampl told the financial Web portal finance.cz that upside and downside risks to the CNB's inflation forecast were "relatively balanced".

Inflation ran at 1.5 percent in February, below the 2 percent floor of the tolerance band of the CNB's target with a 3 percent mid-point. That has helped cemented investors' outlook for a delay in policy tightening until at least the summer.

"The pro-inflationary and anti-inflationary risks are relatively balanced and the moment of a potential rise in rates is certainly farther away than it might have seemed in the final months of last year," Hampl said in the Web interview.

The crown held steady within a range around 28.150 per euro after his comments. Debt yields were little changed.

In January, Hampl told Reuters low inflation gave room to delay policy tightening and made it difficult to see when credit costs would need to head higher, following 75 basis points worth of rate hikes between October 2005 and September 2006.

The key two-week policy repo rate has since held at 2.5 percent, the lowest level in the European Union and a record 125 basis points below the euro zone equivalent.