Slovak crown steady, seen calm before cbank meets

...and dealers said the unit was likely to stay calm ahead of the central bank's (NBS) policy meeting next week.

At 1600 GMT, the crown traded at 33.375 per euro , compared with Wednesday's close of 33.346.

"There is not much appetite to push it (the crown) stronger after interventions," said Tatra Banka dealer Boris Somorovsky.

"It will be important if the central bank cuts interest rates on Tuesday. The crown will probably move in a range until then," he said.

The crown surged by over 3 percent on Monday, reaching an all-time high of 32.710 per euro, after its parity rate in the ERM-2 exchange rate mechanism was revalued by 8.5 percent.

The jump sparked a massive intervention by the NBS on Tuesday, estimated at 1.4-2.0 billion euros. The bank also left the money market awash with excess funds to reduce the currency's attractiveness for carry players.

Short-term rates fell to their lowest levels since May 2006 after the NBS rejected all bids in its liquidity-draining tender on Tuesday. Two-week deposit rates stood at 3.30/3.60 percent on Thursday .

Most analysts bet the bank will cut its key two-week repo rate by 25-50 basis points at its regular policy meeting on March 27 to ease pressure on the crown, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

The crown has lost 2 percent against the euro after NBS' actions, but Governor Ivan Sramko repeated on Wednesday the crown remained overvalued and that the bank would use its tools to move it to levels justified by economic fundamentals. ------------------ MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 1600 GMT ----------------- Crown/euro at 33.370 vs 33.346 on Wednesday Crown/dollar at 24.955 vs 24.911 5-yr govt bond yield 4.227/4.007 pct 7-yr govt bond yield 4.209/3.988 pct ---------------------------------------------------------------