 The Czech crown retreated from amulti-month high on Thursday after the central bank heldinterest rates steady and signalled stability at least untilmid-2021, stalling the currencys advance. Other central European currencies also gave up some of theirrecent gains and stocks were sideways or lower amid softerglobal sentiment. A Reuters poll on Thursday forecast most currencies in theregion would gain in the coming year as worries about a rise innew coronavirus cases diminish and hopes for economic recoverygrow. The crown was expected to gain the most, reaching 25.725to the euro over the next 12 months. But the Czech currency lost about half a percenton Thursday, trading at 26.210 per euro at 1457 GMT. It hadtouched its highest since mid-March on Wednesday. Czech policymakers have been among the most aggressive incutting borrowing costs to deal with the economic fallout fromthe coronavirus pandemic but are shifting into a holdingpattern, especially with inflation staying elevated. On Thursday the central bank CNB left its key rate at0.25 after 200 basis points of cuts earlier this year. I think the CNB can hold interest rates unchanged until theend of 2021 as the crown can be stronger than forecast in itsoutlook and the CNB will have no reason to hurry with tighteningrates, Radomir Jac, chief economist for Generali InvestmentsCEE, said. The Czech economy fell by a record 10.7 year-on-year in thesecond quarter, according to a flash estimate on July 31. It wasthe first release in the region, with others reporting nextweek. Elsewhere, the Polish zloty eased 0.07 to 4.405to the euro and Hungarys forint dropped 0.32 to345.81 versus the common currency. The Romanian leu was steady at 4.836 per euroafter the countrys central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmarkinterest rate by 25 basis points to 1.50 on Wednesday andpledged to continue providing liquidity. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1657 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2020 EURCZK Czech EURHUF Hungary 0 0 EURPLN Polish EURRON Romanian EURHRK Croatian EURRSD Serbian 0 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2020 .PX Prague 906.52 906.410 0.01 -18.74 0 .BUX Budapest 35375.0 35103.3 0.77 -23.24 4 9 .WIG20 Warsaw 1811.84 1833.20 -1.17 -15.73 .BETI Bucharest 8586.78 8559.45 0.32 -13.94 .SBITOP Ljubljana .SBITOP 839.32 842.54 -0.38 -9.35 .CRBEX Zagreb 1589.98 1581.13 0.56 -21.19 .BELEX1 Belgrade .BELEX1 667.92 666.75 0.18 -16.69 5 5 .SOFIX Sofia 433.08 434.56 -0.34 -23.77 Yield Yield Spread Daily bid change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic CZ2YTR 2-year ps CZ5YTR 5-year ps CZ10YT 10-year ps Poland PL2YTR 2-year ps PL5YTR 5-year ps PL10YT 10-year ps FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech Rep 0.33 0.33 0.34 0.34 Hungary 0.62 0.60 0.60 0.60 Poland 0.17 0.16 0.15 0.23 Note: FRA are for ask quotes prices Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague and Anita Komuves in Budapest, editing by Larry King and Jane Merriman 