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By Krisztina Than BUDAPEST, July 26 (Reuters) - The forint eased to a two-week low versus the euro, underperforming its regional peers on Wednesday, a day after the Hungarian central bank cut its one-day deposit rate by another 100 basis points and flagged further policy easing. The forint was 0.9% lower at 382.8 at 0817 GMT, as investors digested the central bank's message that projected a gradual easing of interest rates from an EU-high of 15% now to 13% by September as inflation slows and if supportive market conditions persist. Meanwhile, the zloty was up 0.1%, while the Czech crown was flat, close to the psychological level of 24 to the euro it had fallen to in the past week as expectations of rate cuts had been building. Investors also digested some central banker comments before next week's Czech policy meeting. Vice-Governor Jan Frait told Reuters the bank would begin debating lowering rates this autumn as inflation drops sharply. Others were more cautious, with bank board member Jan Prochazka telling Bloomberg news agency he could not imagine consensus to start cutting rates this year. Vice-Governor Eva Zamrazilova said market expectations on rate cuts were excessive. "(For the forint) underperforming the Czech crown is notable because the latter itself is undergoing one of its weakest streaks in recent years," Commerzbank said in a note. "In our view, this underperformance is the consequence of NBH's pre-announced monetary easing path." Hungary's central bank is expected to carry on with 100 basis points cuts to take its one-day deposit rate to 13% by September, aligning the one-day rate with its 13% base rate - still the highest in the European Union. Inflation is projected to slow to 7%-8% by December, from 20.1% in June. The main risk to the expected cuts in the one-day deposit rate is fresh bouts of forint weakness, analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note. "Recent Forint weakness did not deter the NBH from proceeding with rate cuts, but the NBH is likely to remain cautious with its guidance while the Forint is still exposed to risk-off shocks," they said." "Hence, we do not rule out that a sufficiently large forint depreciation could cause the NBH to pause with its policy normalisation at some point this year." Investors will be eyeing the Federal Reserve's rate decision later on Wednesday. The benchmark rate is expected to be lifted to 5.25%-5.5% - roughly the highest level since the approach to the 2007-2009 financial crisis and recession. A rise in U.S. rates could support the dollar, and also erode the carry on emerging market assets. The Czech finance ministry will offer 6-, 8- and 11-year bonds at an auction later in the day, with demand being watched as the government keeps up its borrowing pace while it tries to cut the large state budget deficit. On stock markets, in a slight negative correction, Budapest and Warsaw were down 0.4% after steady gains. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1014 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2023 EURCZK Czech EURHUF Hungary 0 0 EURPLN Polish EURRON Romanian EURRSD Serbian 0 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2023 .PX Prague 1340.01 1335.33 +0.35% +11.51 00 % .BUX Budapest 53561.4 53758.6 -0.37% +22.30 0 6 % .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 2166.01 2181.76 -0.72% +20.87 > % .BETI Buchares 13170.1 13183.9 -0.10% +12.92 t 4 5 % Spread Daily vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic CZ2YT= 2-year s CZ5YT= 5-year s CZ10YT s Poland PL2YT= 2-year s PL5YT= 5-year s PL10YT s FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech Hungary Poland Note: are for ask FRA prices quotes ******************************************** ****************** (Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague, Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw, and Krisztina Than in Budapest; Editing by Savio D'Souza)