GUS head predicts steady 2.4% economic growth in first quarter of 2001

Economic growth in the first quarter of this year is likely to have been no lower than the 2.4% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2000, according to Janusz Witkowski, head of the Central Statistical Office (GUS). However, he listed several negative tendencies in the economy, among them retail sales, which were 3.1% lower than in the first quarter of last year. Almost 80% of executives polled by GUS listed low domestic demand as the main obstacle to their business activity. On the positive side, industrial output recorded healthy 4.1% growth compared to the January to March period of last year. Exports are also surging, to reach a value in the first two months that was 20.1% above the level in the same period of last year. (Prawo i Gospodarka, April 28-29, p.2) T.J.