By Jason Hovet and Krisztina Than PRAGUE/BUDAPEST, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The forint jumped more than 2% on Friday after Hungary's central launched extraordinary action to shore up the currency after it dropped to record lows this week, threatening policymakers' battle to tame soaring inflation. Hungary's central bank unexpectedly hiked its overnight collateralised loan rate to 25% from 15.5% on Friday. It also launched a new one-day deposit tender at a higher rate and said it would directly provide foreign currency needed to pay energy import bills. The moves come after the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) last month delivered a massive interest rate hike to take its key rate to 13%, but called an end to its hiking cycle that had started already in June 2021. That pledge has been severely tested since, with the forint falling to fresh record lows all this week as the surging U.S. dollar saps risk appetite, and Europe's energy crisis puts pressure on markets. "This is a very hasty step, an attempt to put out the fire," a currency dealer said. "The fact that just two weeks after the central bank signalled an end to rate hikes only to take these emergency measures today shows the true gravity of the situation." Another trader said it would take some time to see whether the bank's latest moves would be sufficient to stabilise the currency. "We need to see what the longer term market reaction will be, whether the market believes that these tools will be enough to stabilise the forint and not worthwhile to bet against the forint," the trader said. Adding to pressure on the forint, investors are also unsure over when Hungary can begin accessing European Union funds tied up in a long-running rule-of-law dispute between Budapest and the EU executive. The NBH said on Friday it was ready to intervene with all tools if needed to ensure market stability. The forint rose to a session high of 416.50 to the euro and was trading at 419.50 at 0919 GMT, well away from record lows beyond the 430 level touched this week. Even so, it was still down nearly 12% for the year, underperforming its regional peers. Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag told an online briefing the bank's base rate level of 13% was appropriate to handle inflation trends. Hungary's inflation rate soared to above 20% in September as energy prices hit consumers. The Hungarian central bank's action came after Prime Minister Viktor Orban earlier on Friday said he had asked the finance minister and the governor of the central bank to at least halve the inflation rate by the end of next year. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1119 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2022 EURCZK Czech EURHUF Hungary 0 0 EURPLN Polish EURRON Romanian EURHRK Croatian EURRSD Serbian 0 0 Note: calcula 1800 daily ted CET change from Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2022 .PX Prague 1148.25 1133.58 +1.29% #VALUE! 00 .BUX Budapest 39523.9 38787.9 +1.90% -22.08% 6 5 .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 1389.04 1358.50 +2.25% -38.73% > .BETI Buchares 10690.5 10546.3 +1.37% -18.15% t 4 4 .SBITO Ljubljan <.SBITO 991.14 981.01 +1.03% -21.05% P a P> .CRBEX Zagreb <.CRBEX 1912.27 1910.28 +0.10% -8.04% > .BELEX Belgrade <.BELEX 828.01 829.34 -0.16% +0.88% 15 15> .SOFIX Sofia <.SOFIX 580.87 580.37 +0.09% -8.62% > Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change 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 FRA ask quotes prices *********************************** *************************** (Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague, Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs in Budapest and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw; Editing by Kim Coghill)