Pressure mounts on RPP to weaken zloty

The Sejm is to hold a debate Wednesday on changes to the law governing the National Bank of Poland (NBP), whose aim would be to make the bank cooperate in weakening the Polish currency. Even though under the draft amendments the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) would not be liquidated, the possibility of taking such a measure is being discussed. President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the RPP cannot be liquidated unless the constitution is amended. This would be justified only once Poland joins the European Monetary Union, Kwasniewski said. Nevertheless the role of the RPP can be diminished, for example, by appointing more members -- a move which has been proposed by the SLD-UP governing coalition. Prime Minister Leszek Miller threatened that the government would introduce necessary changes to the law if the NBP did not take steps to weaken the zloty. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 9) K.S.