Kolodko promises that government spending will be based on reality

During a press conference yesterday Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko announced that the guiding principle of the previous Finance Minister, Marek Belka, of growing budget expenditures will be stopped. It was also revealed that there will not be any changes to the tax on savings, which had been hoped for. "We will not use any automatic mechanisms of adjusting expenditure. All budget spending will be based on the reality of what the nation can afford," said the Minister. Grzegorz Kolodko predicted that GDP would increase in the third quarter to 1.7% and would total 1.2% for the year as a whole. Next year it is expected to reach 3.5%. The budget deficit of 2003 is expected to stand at zl. 38.7 billion and will be primarily financed by domestic sources. The Ministry is expects to acquire zl. 33.6 billion from the domestic market, and zl. 7.4 billion from privatization revenues. Next year the Finance Ministry hopes to sell securities worth $1.3 billion and euro 1.5 billion on foreign markets. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2). A.K.