Slovak crown weakens as mkt expects rate cut

...rally and prepared for a rate cut they 
expected to be delivered next week, dealers said. 
    The crown  was at 33.540 to the euro as of 0815 
GMT, compared with 33.375 seen late on Tuesday. 
    "London banks are cutting positions, they may be preparing 
for next week's monetary meeting," said VUB Bank trader Laco 
Benedek. 
    The crown rose by more than 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 central bank intervened directly by selling crowns and 
flooded the market with crown liquidity to weaken the local 
currency after the post-revaluation jump. 
    A majority of analysts in a Reuters poll expected the 
central bank to cut interest rates by 25-50 basis points at the 
monthly monetary policy meeting on March 27 because the rising 
crown had effectively tightened monetary conditions. 
    Two-week interbank money market rates were fixed at 
3.30/3.77 percent on Thursday, below the official limit rate of 
4.75 percent set by the central bank. 
------------------ MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 0815 GMT ----------------- 
Crown/euro  at 33.540 vs 33.370 on Thursday 
Crown/dollar   at 25.146 vs 24.955 
5-yr govt bond  yield 4.180/3.960 pct vs 4.227/4.007 
7-yr govt bond  yield 4.210/3.961 pct vs 4.209/3.988 
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