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* Crown, forint, zloty weaken as dollar resumes gains * Czech central bank: weak crown creates room for tightening * Forint markets calmer but vulnerable to global mood -traders By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, July 13 (Reuters) - Central Europe's most liquid currencies eased on Friday as the dollar got a new boost from Thursday's U.S. inflation data which reaffirmed expectations for further gradual Fed rate hikes.
With the dollar strengthening, the Czech crown , the forint and the zloty eased 0.1-0.2 percent versus the euro by 0816 GMT.
Regional stocks hardly changed, while government bonds firmed slightly, tracking euro zone and U.S. peers.
The crown, trading at 25.923, eased even though the Czech central bank (CNB) reaffirmed in the minutes of its June meeting that the currency's weakness created room for further monetary tightening.
The dollar's rally in the past months has weighed on emerging markets and central European units.
The crown, supported by four CNB rate hikes since last August, has eased by only 1.5 percent against the euro so far this year, while the forint has shed 4.3 percent and the zloty 3.4 percent.
But the Czech unit is far from the average 25 rate projected by the CNB for this year.
The last rate hike, delivered in June, has failed to lift it. Some investors expect the bank to increase rates again as early as next month to fight inflation, which rose further in June to 2.6 percent in annual terms, above the CNB's 2 percent target.
Prague interbank rates and forward rate agreements have priced in more than a 50 percent chance that another 25-basis-point hike in the CNB's 1 percent main rate could come soon.
By lifting rates the Czech central bank seeks to create room for easing in worse times. Other central banks in the region have been trying to wait out until the dollar-driven waves settle in global markets.
Poland revised its June annual inflation figure a tick higher on Friday, but at 2 percent it is still well within the central bank's 1.5-3.5 percent target range.
Serbia's central bank did not cut the region's highest benchmark rate of 3 percent further at its meeting on Thursday, eyeing global risks to the dinar, a less liquid currency.
It has strengthened half a percent so far this year. On Friday it again resisted the tide, firming 0.1 percent to 117.95 versus the euro.
Hungary's central bank last month abandoned its pledge to keep rates at record lows for years, but pressure on the forint, which set record lows two weeks ago, could return if risk aversion hits global markets again, dealers said.