Economic recovery delayed, forecasts begin to grow more gloomy

"The expected economic recovery is delayed. An up-turn may come in the second half of the year," said Finance Minister Marek Belka. Analysts polled by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) share his view, as they lowered their economic growth expectations for the second quarter of the year from 1.05% to 0.86%. This means the forecast for the year as a whole will be down form 1.34% to 1.26%. At the same time, the Finance Ministry revealed that after the first five months of 2002 the state budget deficit had reached 60% of the figure planned for the whole year. Minister Belka reminded journalists that the corresponding figure for 2001 was 99.3% and said that he could not see any reason to consider amendments to the budget bill. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 4) M.K.