Budget for 2005 assumes higher expenditures, but lower deficit

Finance Minister Andrzej Raczko on Tuesday presented the Cabinet the basic principles upon which next year's budget will be based. The government will probably begin to discuss these today but, "It has already been decided that we will accept it," said Prime Minister Marek Belka. Budget expenditures in 2005 will be about zł.7.35 billion higher than those scheduled in this year's budget. According to Raczko, this will be mainly due to higher payments to the EU budget, which will amount to zł.14.9 billion for 2005. At the same time, budget revenues should be zł.13.85 billion higher than in 2004, which would mean that budget deficit would shrink by zł.6.5 billion to zł.38.8 billion in comparison to the current year. GDP is likely to grow by 5% in 2005, while annual inflation be around 2.8% (Parkiet, p. 7) M.M