* Polish March PMI rises to 54.8, from 53.78 in February
* Czech PMI dips to 58.6, from 59.8, still remains strong
* Hungarian PMI, different methodology, falls to 53.8
* Price pressures grow, central banks may act
By Michael Winfrey
PRAGUE, April 1 (Reuters) - Manufacturing growth accelerated
in Poland and slowed slightly in the Czech Republic and Hungary
in March, with the countries remaining solidly in positive
territory on the back of export-led growth in the euro zone.
The three Eastern European countries are posting double
digit rises in industrial production as their car, electronics,
and other factories pump out goods destined for their main
export market Germany, which is itself working overtime to meet
a spike in orders from Asia.
So far the boom has yet to filter back into a consumer
sector squeezed by the economic crisis, and with analysts
expecting a slowdown in export demand later this year, there is
worry that the recovery is too dependent on production.
But Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data for March showed
at least that sector was still robust, with Poland's index
rising to 54.8, from 53.78 a month earlier, on output and new
orders that translated into job growth, according to Markit
Economics.
The Czech PMI dipped for the second month in a row to 58.6,
from 59.8 a month earlier -- still in growth territory --
reflecting weaker contributions from new orders and output, but
the Czechs also experienced a strong rise in employment, which
grew at its fastest pace in the survey's history.
A figure above 50 indicates a pick-up in manufacturing while
a figure below 50 shows a contraction.
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"The data is a bit of a mixed bag... The industrial sector
is recovering quite strongly but there has been little of that
filtering through into the consumer sector in most of the
region, in Poland to a lesser extent," said David Oxley, an
economist at Capital Economics.
"The bigger picture is they all remain very high above the
50 mark. There's nothing changing our view of near term strength
in the industrial sector."
Hungarian PMI <HUPMI=ECI>, compiled under different
methodology, dropped to 53.8 from a revised 56.9 a month
earlier.
PRICE PRESSURES
The Czechs and Poles both saw higher input costs stemming
from the jump in global commodity prices, a factor that has put
markets across emerging Europe on the watch for interest rate
hikes despite relatively muted domestic demand and core
inflation, which strips out the costs of food and fuel.
That was illustrated in euro zone PMI, also released on
Friday, which showed the output price index bounced to 61.5, its
highest level since Markit began tracking it in November 2002.
Czech input prices rose at the fastest rate in the survey's
history, which also filtered into the strongest increase in
prices charged for manufactured goods since January 2008.
In Poland, whose central bank is expected to raise interest
rates next week by a quarter point to 4 percent, input inflation
eased from levels seen in January and February but was still the
fourth highest in the survey's history.
Polish output prices also hit an almost seven-year high.
"The lag time between a rise in the input price index and a
rise in the output price index is relatively short in Poland,
which suggests that there remains little slack in the economy,"
said Murat Ulgen, HSBC chief economist for Central and Eastern
Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.
"In terms of implications for monetary policy, February's
retail sales and industrial production figures were also quite
strong which, along with rising price pressures, argue for
continued policy tightening at a gradual pace."
(Editing by Toby Chopra)
