UPDATE 1-Bullish sentiment pushes crown to record high

(Adds analyst comments, background)

BRATISLAVA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Slovak crown broke strongly through its key 36.0 resistance level to the euro on Tuesday, hitting a record high against the single currency thanks to a continued bullish mood on central Europen markets.

The crown <EURSKK=> hit a record of 35.850 to the euro, up 0.5 percent from Monday's close, at 1412 GMT.

Tatra Banka chief trader Jozef Bozek said the crown firmed alongside other currencies in the region, the Hungarian forint and Polish zloty, on demand from London banks.

The crown has outperformed its regional peers this year, gaining 5.5 percent against the euro as investors poured capital into higher-yielding emerging markets.

"The reason for this firming were the latest U.S. data, which showed that Fed will likely move to a neutral monetary policy," said Lucia Steklacova, the senior analyst at ING Bank in Bratislava.

The U.S. core producer price index fell 1.6 percent, matching a record fall in October 2001 and more than three times the 0.5 percent decline that had been forecast by Wall Street economists.

Emerging currencies typically gain when data show prospects of stable, or falling interest rates on major markets.

The Slovak currency is now 7.2 percent above its parity in the European Union's ERM 2 exchange rate mechanism, the precursor to euro adoption, which Slovakia joined in November last year as part of its strategy to adopt the euro in 2009.

ING's Steklacova said the crown's strength was in line with Slovakia's economic fundamentals, especially in light of the anticipated jump in exports and improvement in foreign trade balance in the coming months.

The rising crown is also helping the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), the central bank, in the fight against inflation. Slovakia needs to curb price growth by spring 2008 to meet conditions for adopting the euro as planned.

The NBS intervened on the foreign exchange market to slow crown firming during its rally in 2005. But NBS Governor Ivan Sramko said earlier this month the economy was now in a better shape to sustain crown strength than a year ago.

Furthermore, rules in the ERM 2 made it more difficult to interfere with trends on the currency market, Sramko said.

((Reporting by Martin Dokoupil, writing by Peter Laca, editing by Gerrard Raven; Reuters Messaging: peter.laca.reuters.com@reuters.net; +40 21 315 8320))

Keywords: MARKETS SLOVAKIA CROWN