Balcerowicz tells Parliament that sound public finance is crucial for success

While addressing Parliament yesterday, the President of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) Leszek Balcerowicz gave his annual report to the house. While attending a sitting of the Public Finance Commission he called for taxes to be lowered. "We will not have fast economic growth without improving the state of public finance. This requires taxes to be cut," Balcerowicz said. He explained that the diminishing tendency to save, as well as the growing public finance deficit did not allow interest rates to be cut further, and that low interest rates on deposits resulted from a lack of competition. "PKO BP needs to be reformed", he added. (Rzeczpospolita, B2) K.S.