Lubińska is here to stay

Lubińska first raised controversy when she said investments by hypermarkets such as Tesco, the largest British investor in Poland, were not welcome. She also announced her plans to increase the budget deficit, in spite of Law and Justice (PiS) promises to keep it at the level of zł.30 billion.

This led the Prime Minister to issue a temporary ban on his government from talking to the press, but after a short break Lubińska was back in the media spotlight and surprising everyone by claiming that Poles were tired of reform and that social cuts were unnecessary.

"You carry out reforms rarely, but do it well and when economic growth is strong. Right now society is tired of too-frequent reforms," the Finance Minister said. "I don't see any chance for social cutbacks. There is no point in building a program opposed by the majority of society."

Lubińska also said she believed Polish interest rates were too high, given low inflation, but assured she would not exert pressure on the independent central bank to ease its rates policy. The Ministry assumes the central bank will keep its rates steady in 2006 and inflation will stay below the bank's 2.5 percent target at 1.5 percent. (Reuters)