By Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST, Sept. 24 (Reuters) – The Hungarian forint hit an eight-week low against the euro on Friday, extending its losses for a third consecutive session, after the central bank slowed the pace of the rise rates despite the increase in its inflation forecasts. At 0801 GMT, the forint was down 0.3%, causing losses in Central Europe and abandoning much of its gains posted this year. The Hungarian and Czech central banks both started to hike rates in June, raising the forint and koruna by about 3% against the euro ahead of the Hungarian rate meeting on Tuesday, when the bank raised rates. 15 basis points lower than expected at 1.65. %. Despite raising its inflation forecast for this and next year, the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) has announced that it will raise rates further in 15 basis point increments, slowing the pace of tightening after three successive hikes. of 30 basis points. The forint has fallen more than 1% against the euro since Tuesday, reducing its gains for the year to 1.6%. Crown gains, meanwhile, still exceed 3% this year as the debate among Czech rate-setters turns to faster tightening. “The BNH is at a stalemate as it is expected to keep raising rates due to high inflation, however, it cannot rise too far as this could trigger a backlash,” a currency trader in Budapest said. “The elections are approaching, a lot of people are in debt and big rate hikes probably wouldn’t be good news for them,” the trader said, adding that the potential risks of the Evergrande crisis spilling out and rising rates. energy prices were also weighing on sentiment. Earlier on Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he aimed to speed up an additional month of payment to retirees as he escalated a pre-election spending spree ahead of what promises to be a close ballot at the start of the campaign. next year. Last week, Orban also eased the rules for paying off retail credit card loans and overdrafts under an extended debt moratorium, forcing banks to charge lower interest rates on those loans. . The Polish zloty fell 0.2% at the start of trading, while the koruna was 0.1% weaker. Budapest stocks also underperformed the region, falling 0.45%, with all blue chip stocks slightly in the red. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1001 CET CURRENC IES Last daily variation of offer closing in 2021 EURCZK Czech EURHUF Hungary 0 0 EURPLN Polish EURRON Romanian EURHRK Croatian EURRSD Serbian 0 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily variation CET Last daily variation of closing in 2021 .PX Prague 1,308.80 1,307.55 + 0.10% +27.42 00% .BUX Budapest 51,714.4 51946.8 -0.45% +22.82 7 6% .WIG20 Warsaw <.wig20> % .BETI Bucares 12476.3 12395.2 + 0.65% +27.24 t 5 8% .SBITO Ljubljan <.sbito p a> % .CRBEX Zagreb <.crbex> % .BELEX Belgrade <.belex> .SOFIX Sofia <.sofix> % Yield Yield Spread Daily variation (bid) vs Bund variation of Czech spread Republic CZ2YT = 2 years CZ5YT = 5 years CZ10YT s Poland PL2YT = 2 years s PL5YT = 5 years s PL10YT s FORWARD 3×6 6×9 9×12 3M interbank Czech Hungary Poland ** ****************************** ****************** (Report by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Rashmi Aich)