Balcerowicz orders central banker salaries revealed after parliament ploy

The lower house of parliament yesterday postponed by 24 hours a vote on a motion to cut the wages of top central bankers, who have called the proposal a bid to blackmail them into easing monetary policy. The vote delay followed an ill-tempered debate among deputies over whether the income of officials at the National Bank of Poland (NBP) should be kept secret. Later on Thursday, NBP head Leszek Balcerowicz ordered that the wages of management and Monetary Policy Council (RPP) members be revealed. Balcerowicz himself earns on average zl.44,500 per month, his deputies zl.36,200 and zl.33,700, while RPP members get zl.25,800. Analysts say the attack, together with the SLD's call for the government to set inflation targets which are less ambitious than the existing goal of the RPP, could herald a softening of monetary policy and looser fiscal policy. (Prawo i Gospodarka pp. 1, 7, Reuters) M.K.