Despite pre-accession surge in imports, yoy trade deficit is lower than expected

In April the current accounts deficit amounted to EUR 611 million, while a month earlier this figure amounted to EUR 428 million. The data points at growing imports, which is confirms increasing expenditures related to EU accession. Despite that, analysts were expecting the figure to stand at slightly over EUR 400 million, "The level of current account gap is not shocking," stressed Katarzyna Zajdel-Kurowska from Bank Handlowy. She added that this sudden change was a one time effect of EU accession. "We have to wait a few months in order to correctly evaluate what the trend in domestic exports and imports actually is," explained Zajdel-Kurowska. Despite a major growth in the current accounts deficit, the figure for the last 12 months amounts to EUR 2.61 billion, while over the same period last year it stood at EUR 4.73 billion. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B7) M.M.