Poland's Prime Minister Marek Belka believes the public debt may be below 50% of GDP at the end of 2004. We recall that at the beginning of the year, finance minister Miroslaw Gronicki said that the public debt was 50.4-50.6% of GDP at the end of 2004, as it was influenced by the strong zloty, higher privatisation revenues and lower than expected budget deficit.
In an interview with the news agency ISB, Gronicki even mentioned that there was a chance of the ratio to fall below 50%. As recalled in 2003, the public debt was 51.6% of GDP.
On a different note, PM Belka said, referring to the liberal Civic Platform's (PO) leader Jan Rokita's earlier statements, that unilateral introduction of the euro in Poland might provoke serious repercussions from EU. Poland assumes the single currency will be adopted by 2010, with entrance in ERM-2 envisaged in 2007 or 2008.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry projects the budget deficit (calculated according to Polish methodology) down to 2.6% of GDP in 2006, provided the European Union allows transfers to open pension funds (OFE) to be seen as part of the public sector, according to finance minister Miroslaw Gronicki, the daily Puls Biznesu reported.
Gronicki elaborated that if EU does not allow this measure, the budget deficit could amount to as much as 4.4% in 2006. He said, however, that in such case the government would implement "plan B" by spending cuts, which would lower the deficit level by 1.5%.