GUS chief predicts slow economic growth with interest rates staying high

Domestic demand will remain subdued and continue to restrain economic growth in the coming months because of the punishing interest rates, Tadeusz Toczynski, head of the Central Statistical Office (GUS), has said. “Following the economic slowdown in the first quarter, the growth rate has deteriorated further in the second quarter,” Toczynski told a news conference yesterday. “And there are no signals that domestic demand will pick up and start fuelling the economy any time soon,” he added. In the first quarter of 2001, domestic demand fell by 1.4% on an annual basis, the first time it has declined since the mid-1990s. Analysts blame the country’s high interest rates for the fall. (Reuters)