NBP to announce opinion of Kołodko's reform plans

The National Bank of Poland (NBP) is to publish today its evaluation of the Finance Ministry's budget reform plans, key for pushing Poland into the euro zone, NBP Governor Leszek Balcerowicz said yesterday. The same day, the Central Bank's rate-setting Monetary Policy Council (RPP) held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the plan, which includes a contested idea to utilize by the State budget part of the bank's revaluation provisions, amounting in total to zł. 27 billion. "Our opinion was unanimous. Today it will be sent to the Finance Ministry and tomorrow it will be made public," Balcerowicz told reporters after a World Bank news conference. Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko seeks to make the budget flexible enough to enable it to shoulder the costs of joining the EU next year and to bring the deficit below the eurozone's threshold of 3% of GDP by 2006. However, to meet his ambitious target of gradually tighter budget deficits the Finance Ministry will still have to find around zł. 10 billion in cuts or extra revenues a year - a goal which RPP decision-makers said could easily be missed. (Reuters) K.Ż.