Czech c.bank starts meeting, policy not on agenda

PRAGUE, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The Czech central bank's policymakers started a regular weekly meeting on Thursday but no monetary policy decisions were on the agenda, a bank spokesman said in a brief statement without giving any further details.

The announcement was as expected since rate-setters are not scheduled to review the policy setting until next week.

Financial markets universally expect interest rates to stay on hold at the Oct. 26 meeting, after 25 basis point increases in July and September that took the key policy rate to 2.50 percent, 75 basis points below the main euro zone rate.

But many investors have bet on one more quarter-point rate increase before the year-end. ((Reporting by Marek Petrus; Editing by Alan Crosby; Reuters Messaging: rm://marek.petrus.reuters.com@reuters.net; e-mail: prague.newsroom@reuters.com or marek.petrus@reuters.com; Tel: +420 224 190 477))

Keywords: ECONOMY CZECH CBANK