* Interest rate poll data reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=cpurl://apps.cp./Apps/cb-polls?RIC=UACBIR%3DECI
KYIV, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Ukraine’s central bank is likely to keep its key interest rate at a historically low 6% this week to continue supporting a virus-hit economy despite rising inflation, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.
Some 14 of 16 analysts forecast the rate would remain unchanged at the first 2021 monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
The other two think that the bank will raise the rate to 7% as inflation may exceed its target of 5% soon.
Oleksiy Blinov from Alfa-Bank Ukraine expects inflation to overshoot the target in January after it jumped to 5% in December from 3.8% in November, fuelled by rising global prices of steel, gas and other commodities, and some domestic factors.