KIEV - Ukraine's central bank kept its key interest rate at 18 percent on Thursday and said monetary conditions were sufficiently tight to bring inflation down to its medium-term target.

It said Ukraine's good progress on talks with the International Monetary Fund had helped improve inflation expectations.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Susan Fenton) ((matthias.williams@thomsonreuters.com;))