NBP head pegs 2001 inflation at 4%, says economic growth to reach 4%

Poland's inflation will ease to 4% by the end of 2003, NBP President Leszek Balcerowicz said at an economic conference in Berlin yesterday. He added that the country would be able to join the European Currency Union as soon as two to three years after entering the EU. He also projected economic growth to fall slightly this year to 4%, due primarily to Poland's punishingly high interest rates, and the country's efforts to reduce the trade deficit and cut inflation. (Rzeczpospolita, p.B5) M.T.