Hausner ready to impose cuts if zł. 5 billion budget shortfall appears

Economy and Labor Minister Jerzy Hausner announced that meeting the objectives of 2003 budget is not in question, but if the shortage of money turned out to be larger than expected, then the government might decide to impose budget cuts. "It is true that budget revenues are smaller than anticipated and we now analyze the reasons behind this situation," announced Hausner. According to the preliminary data, at the end of October the budget deficit amounted to about 90% of zł. 38.8 billion slated for 2003. The Monetary Policy Council (RPP) recently announced that the government might run short of about zł. 5 billion due to lower revenues. In related news, in September, for the first time since 1998, a current accounts surplus was recorded which amounted to EUR 61 million. Thanks to this, the deficit dropped to 2.4% of GDP at the end of September, while a month earlier it amounted to 2.7%.(Parkiet, p. 7) M.M.