Finance Ministry prepares plan to converge with EU public finance norms

One should expect that it will envisage lowering the public deficit below the level of 3% of GDP in 2006. The document is being prepared by the Financial Policy, Analysis and Statistics Department of the Finance Ministry. We are obliged to present such a paper, as Poland promised the 15 states that it would enter the monetary union, "as soon as possible". Brussels also wants to make sure that Polish finances will be stable enough to guarantee a roughly stable exchange rate between the złoty and the euro, as a breakdown of the Polish currency could cause perturbations in the common market. In February, the Finance Ministry will officially inform the European Commission that in 2003 the budget deficit amounted to about 4.2% of GDP, due to which Poland will need to immediately begin curbing the gap right after accession. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) M.M.