Minister becoming forceful on use of NBP reserves to plug budget deficit

Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko said on Thursday that he was confident he would be able use zł. 9 billion from the National Bank's revaluation reserve despite the Bank's opposition to the plan. He told a news conference that the money would be used to finance next year's budget deficit, set to rise to 4.8% of GDP (according to EU accounting standards) from 4.1% expected in 2003. Under EU ESA-95 accounting regulations, the release of Bank's provisions cannot be counted as budget revenues, therefore it will not decrease next year's deficit. (Reuters) A.K.