Finance Ministry may use privatization revenues to repay foreign debt

The Finance Ministry would like to hold the majority of this year's privatization revenue to repay foreign debt. Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz asked several economists to offer opinions on the idea. Boguslaw Grabowski of the Monetary Policy Council originally came up with the idea of using most of this year's estimated $24 billion in privatization revenue to repay foreign debts. According to Grabowski, the money to pay the installments must be gathered in advance, as later problems in the Polish economy could preclude any payments. The economist's opinion was seconded by former Finance Minister prof. Lutkowski who commented the huge burden of debt servicing "could be a burden likely to break the backbone of the Polish economy." (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 29) A.Z.