RCSS says economic growth goals unreachable, blames interest rates

Economic growth in the first quarter of this year failed to exceed 2%, and will not reach higher than 3.5% for the year as a whole, the Government Center for Strategic Studies (RCSS) has reported. This means the 4.5% goal set for the year will not be met. According to the RCSS report, this year's inflation rate will be 6%, lower than the expected 6.6%. There seems little hope, however, for curbing unemployment, as according to RCSS it will reach 17%, as opposed to the 15.4% foreseen by the government. One of the factors to blame are the punishingly high interest rates, according to the report. "If the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) had decided to lower the interest rates by six percentage points, the macroeconomic indicators the government would like to see by the end of the year would be reasonable," complained Jerzy Kropiwnicki, head of the RCSS. (Rzeczpospolita, May 26-27, p.B2) J.K