UPDATE 4-Czech President surprises with central bank choice

(Adds media report on second replacement, analyst quote)

By Jan Lopatka and Marek Petrus

PRAGUE, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Friday appointed 32-year-old economist Vladimir Tomsik, an academic whose views on the central bank's (CNB) current monetary policy are unknown, to the bank board.

Klaus made the announcement in a statement after talks with CNB Governor Zdenek Tuma earlier in the day, just before the six-year mandates of two of the CNB's seven policymakers -- Michaela Erbenova and Jan Frait -- end on Nov. 30.

Klaus, who has sole power to pick central bankers without government or parliament having to agree, did not say in the statement if Tomsik was replacing Erbenova or Frait.

A spokesman for Klaus told Reuters the president would announce his second nomination next week and sources close to the central bank said both were likely to be replaced.

The Internet edition of the business weekly Euro reported, without citing the source of its information, that the second replacement was Mojmir Hampl, 31, a right-wing economist.

Hampl, former analyst at bank Ceska Sporitelna and top manager at the state Consolidation Agency, has been frequently touted as a candidate by local media in past few weeks.

But analysts expect no significant shift in policy at the bank, whose key interest rate is at 2.50 percent, a record 75 basis points below the euro zone equivalent.

Both Tomsik and Hampl, if he is appointed, would likely rely heavily on the CNB's staff inflation forecasts, a key driver of interest rate decisions, said analysts.

"Hampl's views are not only well anchored in theory but he is pragmatic and I would expect that if he is appointed, he would have no clear bias," said Viktor Kotlan, chief economist at Ceska Sporitelna and an acquaintance of Hampl.

"Tomsik has criticised the CNB in the past for undershooting the inflation target, so I would expect him to be cautious about hiking interest rates ... and lean towards the dovish wing of the bank board," he added.

'STRONG ECONOMIST'

Tomsik told Reuters in his first comments since the announcement he would not pursue purely theoretical views on monetary policy and would seek to be pragmatic about decisions.

"It is necessary to have a pragmatic view of things. One cannot come to the bank as a theoretician," Tomsik said in a telephone interview from Canada, where he has been on a mission with the World Trade Institute for which he currently works.

Asked whether he would describe himself as having dovish or hawkish views on inflation, he said: "I guess one can only tell in retrospect, and it would better be if outside observers make such a judgement."

Both Erbenova and Frait joined the CNB's board -- which sets interest rates and runs exchange rate policy -- on Dec. 1, 2000.

Tomsik, who has degrees in economic policy and economics at the University of Economics (VSE) and the Charles University, both in Prague, is an associate professor at the VSE.

Between 1997 and 2005, he taught courses focused on economic policy, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting at the VSE, an institution which the monetarist Klaus earlier attended.

Tomsik has also worked as a private sector analyst and since 2005 has been deputy leader of a team researching multilateral trade agreements at the World Trade Institute in Switzerland.

(with reporting by Petra Vodstrcilova) ((Writing by Alan Crosby; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Editing by Mike Peacock; Reuters Messaging: alan.crosby.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420 224 190 477))

Keywords: ECONOMY CZECH CBANK