Economics In Brief: Rising budget deficit?; PSL doubts over euro zone entry

Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko yesterday said that next year's budget deficit may be set at around zl. 40 billion against this year's target of zl. 38.7 billion. "Next year we will have to book more than zl. 200 billion in expenditures, a large part of which will have to be borrowed," Kolodko told public television in an interview. The Finance Ministry is now working on fiscal reforms to make the budget more flexible to prepare Poland for EU accession next year, but the Ministry will not reveal any details of the reform until mid-March. (Reuters) ... Zbigniew Kuzmiuk, Polish Peasants Party Deputy, told Reuters that his party could back the bulk of reforms proposed by Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko, as the country needed deep fiscal reforms to enable its 2004 budget to bear the costs of joining the EU. However, he said there was no need to restrict fiscal and monetary policy further to join the euro zone in a rush. (Reuters) M.M. Snail's pace road construction leaves little hope that gov't plans will be met Deputy Prime Minister Marek Pol last year promised that the government would construct 500 kilometres of new highways by the end of 2005. However, so far only 6 kilometres have appeared, nevertheless Pol assured that by the end of 2003 this number would increase to 70 kilometres. He also claims that the program, "Of constructing new highways is not evenly distributed over time." This year the government will foster the project which will mean in 2004, 140 kilometres of highways should be completed, followed by another 250 kilometres in 2005. According to Pol, the bills to introduce vignettes and to make land purchases easier which await the President's approval, should substantially speed up the plans. (www.rmf.pl) M.M. Musical chairs in Rywin Commission as politicians strive to grab the l imelight Yesterday Self-Defense deputy Piotr Smolana resigned from place on the Sejm Rywin Commission. He is likely to be replaced by Andrzej Lepper. What is interesting is rather the way he resigned. At 9.00 a.m. the Polish Press Agency (PAP) informed that Lepper was predicting that his colleague would step down, but the same PAP dispatch quoted Smolana as saying that he knew nothing about it. However two hours later he changed his mind and stated that his presence in the Commission would negatively influence it. His resignation caused speculation that it would have to start its proceeding from scratch. "From our legal analysis it turns out that there is no such necessity," said Commission chairman Tomasz Nalecz. Today the Sejm will also vote on dismissing Polish Family League (LPR) Deputy Bohdan Kopczynski from the Commission and replacing him with Roman Giertych. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A3; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 6) M.M.