By Anita Komuves BUDAPEST, June 21 (Reuters) – The Hungarian forint and the Czech Koruna strengthened on Monday as investors waited for central bank rate meetings in Budapest and Prague, where policymakers are expected to take the lead in l ‘European Union to tighten their policy since the pandemic. The Hungarian central bank holds its rate-setting meeting on Tuesday and the Czech central bank on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters expect a 25 basis point hike in the key rate of the two central banks. Rate hike expectations have supported the forint and the Czech koruna for weeks, although they both gave up some of those gains after the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it could tighten policy earlier than expected, strengthening the dollar. The Hungarian forint gained 0.3% on Monday and traded at 354.92 per euro. The currency suffered heavy losses last week, falling more than 2% and underperforming its regional peers. This was in part due to the high degree of uncertainty ahead of the rate meeting, CIB Bank wrote in a note. “Market expectations for how much to raise rates are very different, which has destabilized the markets.” “In order to avoid negative consequences in the market, the Council must increase the one-week deposit rate to at least 0.9% and correct the base rate accordingly,” wrote CIB. The Czech crown rose 0.08% and was trading at 25.565 against the common currency. The Polish zloty was up 0.18% and traded at 4.5455 per euro, helped by new industrial production data showing a 29.8% year-on-year rise in May, above the forecasts. “The data should remind people of the strong fundamentals of the zloty, which should help mitigate the negative effects of the stronger dollar in emerging markets,” wrote Konrad Bialas, chief economist at DM TMS Brokers. The Prague and Budapest stock exchanges edged up while Warsaw stocks weakened 0.89%. Markets in Romania were closed for a public holiday on Monday. SNAPSHOT OF EEC MARKETS T 1055 CET CURRENCY IES Last daily change previous change in bid closing in 2021 EURCZK = Czech EURHUF = Hungary 0 EURPLN = Polish EURRON = Romania EURHRK = Croatia EURRSD = Serbian 0 Note: calculated from from 1800 daily change CET Last daily change previous near change in 2021 .PX Prague 1162.86 1162.010 + 0.07% +13.21 0% .BUX Budapes 48154.7 48117.72 + 0.08% +14.36 t 2% .WIG20 Warsaw 2200.95 2220.68 -0.89% +10 , 94% .BETI Buchare 11,608.1 11,608.18 + 0.00% +18.38 st 8% .SBITOP Ljublja <.sbitop na> % .CRBEX Zagreb 1988.50 1992.28 -0.19% + 14.33% .BELEX1 Belgrad <.belex1 e> .SOFIX Sofia 552.97 551.89 + 0.20% + 23.56% Yield Yield Spread Daily variation (bid) vs Bund variation of Czech spread Republished CZ2YT = R s CZ5YT = R s CZ10YT = s Poland PL2YT = R s PL5YT = R s PL10YT = s FORWARD 3×6 6×9 9×12 3M Czech interbank 0.78 1.05 1.39 0.44 Hungary Rep 1.50 1.78 1.93 0.93 Poland 0.35 0.53 0, 72 0.21 ******************************************* *** **** ********** (Additional reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Andrew Heavens)