POLL-Czech March CPI seen up 1.9 pct, jobless rate 7.4 pct

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* When: April 10, 0700 GMT

* Consumer prices expected to show rise of 0.3 percent month-on-month, 1.9 percent year-on-year. March unemployment rate seen at 7.4 percent.

PRAGUE, March 29 (Reuters) - Czech consumer inflation probably extended a gradual up-tick but remained stuck below the central bank's target in March, confirming the low-inflation nature of the country's economic growth, a Reuters poll showed.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad gauge of inflation targeted by the central bank (CNB), is expected to show a rise of 0.3 percent in March from February to take the annual inflation rate to 1.9 percent, according to the median forecast of 14 analysts in the poll.

The data are due for release on April 10, along with March unemployment numbers.

The analysts' median forecast was for the jobless rate to drop to 7.4 percent of workforce from February's 7.7 percent, pointing at tightening conditions in a market where some booming industries have reported shortages of labour.

Economists cited higher food and fuel prices, as well as a delayed impact of past tobacco tax hikes, as the main reason for the pick-up in annual inflation from 1.5 percent in February and a 1-1/2-year low of 1.3 percent in January.

"The crown also weakened early in the year and there could be some pass-through to consumer prices," said Vojtech Benda, economist at ING Wholesale Banking in Prague.

"But policymakers' recent statements suggest the CNB will be cautious and will not be changing its rhetoric until it is certain that inflation is creeping up at a faster pace than it had expected," he added.

Markets widely expect the CNB's policymakers to hold the benchmark policy interest rate at 2.50 percent, the lowest level in the European Union, after a monthly meeting later on Thursday.

The CNB has paused since tightening policy by a cumulative 75 basis points between October 2005 and September 2006 to prevent record growth from fuelling inflationary pressures.

Analysts' forecasts for data due for publication in April signalled the economy likely maintained a solid pace of growth into 2007 after advancing at a record annual clip of 6.1 percent in both 2005 and 2006.

February foreign trade balance was expected to stay in the black and show a 5.1 billion crown monthly surplus. Industrial output was seen rising 8.4 percent in February after a 9.8 percent jump a month earlier.

Retail sales were estimated to show a 6.5 percent gain in February after growing 7.7 percent in the prior month, reinforcing the view that household consumption is becoming the main driver of growth this year.

- OVERVIEW OF ECONOMIC FORECASTS: [ID:nL29735550]

- SUMMARY OF COMMENTS BY CNB POLICYMAKERS: [ID:nL28280579]

- LATEST INTEREST-RATE FORECASTS: [ID:nL21449308]