* Crown a touch weaker
* News conference watched for signs when rates will rise
(Adds details, crown, background)
PRAGUE, March 24 (Reuters) - The Czech central bank kept
interest rates unchanged on Thursday as expected and analysts
looked to the bank's 1330 GMT news conference for clues on
future moves.
The key two-week repo rate <CZRP=> <CZCBIR=ECI>, used to
drain excess liquidity, was left at a record low 0.75 percent.
Nineteen out of 20 analysts in a Reuters poll had expected
no change in March and one expected a quarter point hike.
Twelve said rates would rise by June, earlier than
projections in the central bank's staff forecast implying a rate
increase at the end of the year.
Governor Miroslav Singer will hold a news conference at 1330
GMT to spell out reasons for the decision.
Analysts said the board would be assessing two conflicting
developments.
On the one hand, inflation was below the bank's forecast
over the past two months, and wages and consumption both fell in
the fourth quarter pointing to fiscal austerity denting
household demand.
On the other hand, export recovery has been firmly on track,
illustrated by strong output data, and global commodity prices
have began to filter through to producer prices.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has signalled it could raise
the bloc's benchmark rate in April from the current record low
of 1 percent and some economists said this could put pressure on
Czechs who will want to avoid a widening interest rate
differential.
But two Czech rate setters have since said ECB moves did not
directly trigger changes in the central European country's rates
and a wider differential was not a problem.
Board member Eva Zamrazilova said she saw no time to wait
for a hike because inflationary pressures from rising exports
and producer prices were mounting and the bank should act
pre-emptively.
But another advocate of tighter policy, Kamil Janacek, said
he would miss the meeting, while Robert Holman, the third voter
for a hike in February, was replaced on the board by Lubomir
Lizal, whose policy views are not yet known.
The crown <EURCZK=>, a key variable in the bank's inflation
outlook, was at 24.459 at 1209 GMT, down from 24.425 ahead of
the decision.
The currency was trading a touch stronger than the bank's
forecast for the first quarter at 24.5, but the three-month
average rate was slightly weaker, at 24.6 per euro.
Regional peers, the Polish and Hungarian central banks, have
already reversed their easing cycles in past months. <HUINT=ECI>
<PLINTR=ECI>
(Reporting by Jana Mlcochova; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
