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WARSAW, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Poland's central bank governor on Wednesday said there was no need for intervention to support the zloty, after the currency dived to levels last seen in mid-2004, deepening worries over the EU's largest ex-communist economy. The zloty has slid another 5 percent against the euro in the last day, hit by a broad flight of investors out of eastern Europe that brought the currency's losses to 46 percent since it hit an all-time high last July.
Worries the economy could contract for the first time since the 1990s, and over how its foreign-owned banks will perform and lend in months ahead, have added to investors' aversion to risk in the global financial crisis.
But the zloty was weaker than the current levels before it joined the European Union in 2004 and Poland's central bank and government have stuck to the policy of letting it float freely.
"It doesn't seem to be necessary to undertake interventions on the forex market right now," Governor Slawomir Skrzypek told TVP Info in an interview on Wednesday.
At 1005 GMT the zloty traded at 4.68 against the euro or 1.7 percent down from its Tuesday close.
Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak also said there was no need for intervention.
"There is a question whether those interventions would be successful... Moreover, we need the FX reserves we have, more than 55 billion euros, as collateral in case there is a necessity of entering ERM-2," Skrzypek said.
It could be "incredibly costly and incredibly risky" to enter the pre-euro Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-2) right now, he added, citing some analysts who say Poland's FX reserves would not suffice to keep the zloty within the grid.
Referring to a government plan for almost 20 billion zlotys in budget savings announced on Tuesday, Skrzypek said it was important to maintain tight budget discipline at a time of slowdown.
"The government's push to do so (keep budget discipline) is correct," he said.
The centre-right government announced a savings plan amounting to 19.7 billion zlotys in 2009 budget spending.
It also vowed to keep the budget gap at the previously planned 18.2 billion zlotys even if 2009 growth slows to 1.7 percent, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said is its worst case scenario, from an expected 4.8 percent in 2008.
The budget had a surplus in January of 2.8-3.0 billion zlotys, Deputy Finance Minister Elzbieta Suchocka-Roguska told Reuters on Wednesday, adding she expected a deficit in the full January-February period. (Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Kuba Jaworowski; editing by Patrick Graham)