Croatian kuna inches up vs euro, money rates down

...direct deals.

The kuna traded at 7.3562/7.3650 per euro, firming slightly from Monday's 7.3615/7.3715 on the local foreign exchange market.

A strong offer of euros brought slight appreciation pressures on the kuna and most market participants said they expected the kuna to trade at the level of between 7.3550 and 7.3800 to the euro in the coming days.

(For central bank's kuna mid-rates click on after 1230 GMT).

On the money market, the benchmark overnight lending rate fell to 3.44 percent from 3.53 percent.

"We expect the short-term interest rates to ease further in the coming days, as the liquidity remains good," Raiffeisenbank said in its daily notice.

The finance ministry will not hold its weekly auction of treasury bills and the next auction will be held on Jan. 23, when the ministry will offer investors 300 million kuna ($52.84 million) worth of issues.

Two bonds traded on the local bond market in the morning on a meagre turnover of about eight million kuna. Monday's trade volume amounted to 149.5 million kuna and was 60 percent higher than last Friday's daily trade. The euro-denominated local bonds took up 97 percent of the trade.

Live bond trade on .

Live corporate bond trade on . ((Zagreb Newsroom +3851 4899 970, fax +385 1 4899 905; zagreb.newsroom@reuters.com; Editing by Ian Jones)) ($1=5.677 Croatian Kuna)

Keywords: MARKETS CROATIA/

[ZAGREB/Reuters/Finance.cz]