Budget reductions for foreign debt servicing could spark crisis, minister says

In the budget accepted by parliament last Saturday, the allocation for servicing the foreign debt was decreased by zl.162 million, of which zl. 150 million will be spent on fuel subsidies for farmers. Allocations for domestic debt-servicing were cut by zl.95 million to provide funds for financing Warsaw’s metro. Minister of Finances Jaroslaw Bauc immediately declared a fight to change these decisions in the Senate. Deputy minister of finance Krzysztof Ners warned reduction of funds for servicing foreign debt could mean loss of Poland’s credibility on world financial markets, ultimately leading to a monetary crisis on the scale of the 1998 Russian collapse.(Gazeta Wyborcza, p.25) M.T.