By Anita Komuves BUDAPEST, October 5 (Reuters) – The Romanian leu rose slightly on Tuesday, driven by expectations of a central bank rate hike later today to fight rising inflation, while the zloty and the forint have lost their recent gains. Three of the five analysts polled by Reuters expect Romanian policymakers to hike the benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a point to 1.50%, earlier than initially expected. Some analysts believe the National Bank of Romania may choose to wait another month, as the number of daily COVID-19 cases continues to rise. “The pandemic is a good excuse to wait, the fourth wave is worse here than in the region,” said a trader. “Otherwise, they have every reason to hike. The Romanian leu appreciated 0.05% to 4.9495 against the euro. Investors were also considering a vote of no confidence in the Romanian parliament which is expected to overthrow the government of liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu. The Polish zloty slipped 0.13% to 4.5930 per euro, abandoning some recent gains fueled by rising rate hike expectations as data last week showed higher than expected inflation in September. The National Bank of Poland is holding its next rate-setting meeting on Wednesday, during which analysts do not expect any change in the base rate. However, some economists believe there could be a hike before the end of the year. The Hungarian forint eased 0.16% to 357.30 per euro, retreating after gains that started on Friday when Deputy Central Bank Governor Barnabas Virag signaled further rate hikes of 15 points basic. Long-term Hungarian government bond yields were flat on Tuesday after rising around 10 basis points on Monday. Yields on the long end of the curve began to rise on Friday after comments from Virag that signaled the bank would continue to pull out of its quantitative easing program, fixed income traders in Budapest said. The yield on the 10-year bond was approximately 3.48%. Shares of Prague outperformed the region and rose 1.15% as shares of Czech utility CEZ continued to soar, reaching a new 9-year high as wholesale electricity prices rose. Europe were increasing. CEZ shares were up 4.25% at 08:58 GMT. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1049 CET CURRENC IES Last daily change previous offer closing change in 2021 EURCZK = Czech EURHUF = Hungary 0 EURPLN = Polish EURRON = Romania EURHRK = Croatia EURRSD = Serbian 0 Note: calculated from 1800 change Daily CET Last previous daily change near variation in 2021 .PX Prague 1356.57 1341.870 + 1.10% +32.07 0% .BUX Budapes 53106.3 53234.94 -0.24% +26.12 t 2%. WIG20 Warsaw 2,340.87 2,338.09 + 0.12% + 17.99% .BETI Bucare 12,628.8 12,611.18 + 0.14% +28.79 st 6% .SBITOP Ljublja <.sbitop na> % .CRBEX Zagreb 2024.47 2027.35 -0.14% + 16.40% .BELEX1 Belgrad <.belex1 e> .SOFIX Sofia 569.90 570.68 -0.14% + 27.34% Yield Yield Spread Daily variation (bid) vs Bund variation of the Czech spread Republished CZ2YT = R s CZ5YT = R s CZ10YT = s Poland PL2YT = R s PL5YT = R s PL10YT = s FORWARD 3x 6×9 9×12 3M Czech interbank 2.73 2.98 3.13 1.82 Hungary Rep 2.34 2.65 2.90 1.77 Poland 0.75 1.17 1, 52 0.25 ******************************************* *** **** ********** (Additional reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest, Jason Hovet in Prague and Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)