(Bloomberg) -- Hungary is poised to lower the highest borrowing costs in the European Union again, with policymakers potentially accelerating the pace of easing despite the national currency hovering near a four-month low. 

The National Bank of Hungary will cut the benchmark rate by a full percentage point to 9%, according to 18 of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Two forecast a fifth monthly reduction of 75 basis points, roughly in line with money market expectations. 

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has been pressuring the central bank to step up easing, partly blaming real interest rates - which at 6.2% reached the highest since 2009 in January - for Hungary’s lackluster economic recovery. The central bank has cited the need to anchor the currency for skipping a widely-anticipated full-percentage point cut last month despite a plunge in the inflation rate. 

“The window of opportunity for the NBH to cut at a faster pace is narrowing,” Unicredit Group economist Zsolt Becsey said in a note, predicting a reversal in disinflation trends in the course of the year.

Playing against that is the forint, which is trading around 390 against the euro, the weakest in almost fourth months.

The central bank has been debating whether to boost the size of rate cuts, with the last policy meeting seeing dissent recorded in the minutes for the first time since 2016. 

Recent data showing a sharper slowdown in inflation than expected supports the case for bigger rate cuts, Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag said in an interview with Index news website last week. But market expectations that the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank may further delay monetary easing warrants a more cautious approach, he said.

“The outcome of the decision is completely open,” Virag said.

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