Czech c.banker Niedermayer sees rate hikes-Thomson

...told Thomson Financial News in an interview on Wednesday.

"The fact that the inflation outlook needs support from a tighter monetary policy perhaps seems quite clear," Thomson quoted Niedermayer as saying.

"The likelihood that in upcoming months we will reach inflation of over 5 pct is now significantly higher than a week ago," he said.

His comments were in line with the view of hawk Mojmir Hampl, who told Reuters in an interview that interest rates have not yet reached a plateau [ID:nL1433320].

However, another board member Pavel Rezabek told Bloomberg also on Wednesday that the central bank should hold off raising interest rates further after 150 basis points of increases in the past two years [ID:nL14898548].

The key two-week repo rate now stands at 3.25 percent.

Niedermayer said the crown currency's 7 percent rise against the euro since this year's low in the summer was surprising but would not hold back inflation in the nearest months.

"The crown... is much much firmer than at the time when we were putting together the new (inflation) projection (released in October)," he said.

"What I find likely is that in the short term the currency won't be able to contain the price growth and inflation will be higher than to what we grew accustomed to in the last years."

"If the currency continues to be strong then it will, in the upcoming several months, begin to push core inflation to drop. But the pressure won't be fast enough to prevent inflation to rise to levels higher than usual, let's say above 5 pct."

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka)

Keywords: CZECH CENTRALBANKER/NIEDERMAYER

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]