High 2006 GDP growth helped cut public debt

"After Monday's Central Statistical Office (GUS) announcement that economic growth in 2006 amounted to 5.6%, our forecasts on debt have improved. Earlier they amounted to 48.2% of GDP and now to 48%," stated Deputy Finance Minister Katarzyna Zajdel-Kurowska. She added that the final result may still change since data from local governments are not yet complete. At the end of last year Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska warned that the public debt may exceed the 50% threshold, but it did not transpire. "All projections saying that the debt will exceed 50% were not fulfilled, and we do not assume that they will be fulfilled in 2007," said Zajdel-Kurowska. "The state of the economy is good which is confirmed by the revision of our credit rating by Fitch and earlier by Moody's," she added. According to professor Andrzej Wernik from the Academy of Finance, the debts of local governments should not deteriorate the final figure. "If the debt really proved to be 48% of GDP then it would be a good result, taking into account the fact that the debt at the end of 2005 amounted to 47.3% GDP," said Wernik. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) E.B.