Central Bank bails out 2002 budget

The Finance Ministry has announced that the budget deficit after 11 months of 2002 stands at zl. 37.06 billion - 92.7% of the yearly plan. Available data suggest that there may a problem with closing the budget on the revenues side, if not for the higher payout from Central Bank (NBP) profits and the better-than-expected results of budget units. The NBP payouts amounted to zl. 2.6 billion by the end of November, which means that the budget plan in this matter has been exceeded by 31.6%. "'This figure should grow further over the coming years unless the Finance Ministry fulfills its threat and starts buying currencies straight from the market," said ING BS economist Mateusz Szczurek. In his opinion, the data is generally disappointing, as the deficit is higher than predicted and the budget seems unlikely to receive the planned revenues from some taxes such as VAT and PIT. (Parkiet, p. 6) M.M.