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LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) The yen held just above an earlier two-week low against the dollar on Friday, with investors betting Japan's interest rates will stay near-zero for some months yet despite the end of quantitative easing policy.

The dollar was broadly steady against most major currencies, including the euro and the Swiss franc, with investors reluctant to take positions ahead of closely-watched U.S. jobs data at 1330 GMT.

Economists polled by Reuters expect a rise of 210,000 non-farm payroll jobs in February and any upside surprise could boost expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates beyond 5.0 percent from 4.5 percent now.

''I don't think anyone wants to break the current ranges until we get that employment report,'' said Gavin Friend, currency strategist at Commerzbank.

''We don't really see the shift by the BOJ as something which would be necessarily supportive for the yen in the short-term because rates are not going to go up for the next three months.'' By 0847 GMT, the dollar was changing hands at 118.16 yen, broadly flat on the day and just below a two-week high of 118.71 yen struck earlier in the session.

The euro was little changed at around $1.1916, and the Swiss franc was also stable at 1.3134 per dollar.

The Bank of Japan scrapped its five-year old quantitative easing policy on Thursday.

But it will probably take three to four months to drain the extra cash from the Japanese banking system and rates are forecast to stay near zero until the second half of the year.

Thus the yen is likely to retain its appeal as a funding currency for some time yet.

Twenty-six of 34 European-based participants in a Reuters poll said there was unlikely to be a strong shift from the yen carry trade in the near future.

RATE HIKES ACROSS EUROPE The Swedish crown rallied to a new two-week high against the euro at 9.3859 and also rose against the dollar after annual consumer price inflation picked up to 0.6 percent in February, above a consensus forecast of 0.4.

Last month, lower than expected inflation had weakened the crown by dampening expectations of gradual interest rate tightening throughout this year.

German data on Friday showed that inflation held steady at 2.1 percent in February, as expected, and exports rose to a record high of 69.7 billion euros in January.

A pick up in Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, has supported expectations that the European Central Bank will continue gradually raising rates this year from the current 2.5 percent.

The Swiss National Bank is also on a tightening path and is forecast to raise the mid-point of its target range to 1.25 percent on March 16.

KIWI, YEN By contrast a slim majority of economists expect a rate cut in New Zealand this year, where the cost of borrowing is currently at 7.25 percent.

The New Zealand dollar hit a fresh 18-month low of Friday, at $0.6437, extending recent losses on the back of tightening by other central banks and the deteriorating domestic economic outlook.

In Japan, expectations of a rate hike by year-end could be dampened if the BOJ continues to come under pressure from politicians who have urged it to tread cautiously on monetary policy so as not to upset the long-awaited economic recovery.

On Thursday, the BOJ announced an inflation ''reference rate'' of 0-2 percent as part of its policy shift. Unless inflation picks up much more, senior politicians may seize on the reference rate to warn against BOJ rate rises.

''I think rate hikes will become more difficult for the BOJ,'' said Mitsuru Saito, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Securities.

''Such expectations are driving up Japanese share prices.'' REUTERS SY DS1603