The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) left its base rate unchanged at 13% on Tuesday, as expected, after a marginal decline in headline inflation to an annual 25.4% in February and turmoil in the global banking sector, which also hit the forint.

The decision to leave the European Union's highest benchmark rate unchanged was in line with the unanimous forecast of economists in a Reuters poll last week. (Reporting by Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs)