PRAGUE, May 24 (Reuters) - The forint dropped on Tuesday as a Hungarian central banker reiterated the pace of interest rate hikes would slow, while the Czech crown also pulled back from recent gains amid more signs strong inflation is weighing on consumer demand. Stocks in central Europe also mostly eased, falling with European peers as slowing growth concerns weighed on markets. Inflation around the region has hit multi-decade highs and is still on the rise, even after sharp interest rate hikes from central European policymakers since last year. The crown has been shaken by a new central bank governor due to take over from July, Ales Michl, who has already called for an end of rate hikes after 550 basis points in increases since last June. On Tuesday, Hungarian central bank Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag was cited as saying that could slow down the pace of rate rises to about half of the 100 basis point steps delivered in the past two months. The forint EURHUF= retreated by 0.4% to 383.75 to the euro, coming after several days of gains. "Nobody thought the central bank would keep hiking rates by 100 basis points," one FX trader said. "However, the forint will weaken a bit on this piece of news. My rate expectations have not really changed in the past one or two months, maybe the pace of how we will get there." While economies have held up to start 2022, evidenced by solid growth in the first quarter, signs are pointing to a consumer slowdown amid fast-rising prices and utility bills, rising interest rates and growing uncertainty even as fighting in Ukraine continues. Czech consumer confidence hit a 10-year low in May, a statistics office survey showed on Tuesday. The crown EURCZK= fell 0.2% to 24.679 per euro, while Poland's zloty EURPLN= managed a 0.15% rise and Romania's leu EURRON= was steady. Stock markets were led lower by a 0.8% drop in Warsaw .WIG20. CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1127 CET CURRENCIES Previous bid change in 2022 EURCZK= Czech crown EURCZK= EURHUF= Hungary forint EURHUF= 383.7500 382.1500 EURPLN= Polish zloty EURPLN= EURRON= Romanian leu EURRON= EURHRK= Croatian kuna EURHRK= EURRSD= Serbian dinar EURRSD= Note: daily change calculated from 1800 CET Previous close change in 2022 .PX .PX #VALUE! .BUX Budapest .BUX .WIG20 .WIG20 .BETI Bucharest .BETI .SBITOP Ljubljana .SBITOP .CRBEX .CRBEX .BELEX15 Belgrade .BELEX15 .SOFIX .SOFIX (bid) change in Czech Republic CZ2YT=RR CZ2YT=RR +503bps CZ5YT=RR CZ5YT=RR +421bps +6bps CZ10YT=RR 10-year CZ10YT=RR +371bps PL2YT=RR PL2YT=RR +584bps PL5YT=RR PL5YT=RR +606bps +8bps PL10YT=RR 10-year PL10YT=RR +556bps +4bps 3M interbank Note: FRA quotes are for ask prices ************************************************************** (Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague, Anita Komuves in Budapest and Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri) ((jason.hovet@thomsonreuters.com)) The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.