Czech c.bank says Nov CPI undershoots its forecast

PRAGUE, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Czech central bank (CNB) said on Wednesday November consumer inflation of 1.5 percent year-on-year came in 0.4-0.5 percentage points below its quarterly forecast drawn up in October.

Tomas Holub, head of the bank's monetary and statistics deparment, said the lower-than-forecast inflation was caused equally by the development of food prices and so-called adjusted inflation excluding fuel prices.

The CNB prefers to look at the adjusted rate -- net of tax and administrative price increases as well as volatile food and fuel prices -- to track the underlying trends in inflation.

Holub added in a statement fuel prices and the impact of indirect tax changes on the headline inflation level were also slightly lower than assumed by the bank's October forecast.

Data released earlier in the day showed consumer prices dipped 0.1 percent in November, in line with the consensus market forecast on falling prices of natural gas and motor fuel, to put the annual inflation rate at 1.5 percent. ((Reporting by Marek Petrus; Editing by Gerrard Raven; 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: CZECH ECONOMY/INFLATION CENTRALBANK