Ministers rock the revaluation boat over budget deficit

On Friday, Economy and Labor Minister Jerzy Hausner said, "The Finance Ministry may propose a 2004 budget deficit exceeding zł. 50 billion if it does not reach agreement with the National Bank of Poland (NBP) on revaluation reserves." Deputy Finance Minister Ryszard Michalski warned that this mean that interest rates would rise. According to the plans of the Fina nce Minister Grzegorz Kołodko, next year's budget deficit should amount to zł. 40 billion, provided that zł. 9 billion revaluation reserves are included as budget revenues. Michalski said that he would not support the idea of NBP's intervention on the forex market, which would push the Euro exchange value back to the zł. 4.35 level, which is the optimum rate according to Kołodko. (Rzeczpospolita, June 7-8, p. B2) M.M.