Reeling in public debt

Estimates by the Gdańsk Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR) suggest that budget expenses will amount to zł.216.9 billion in 2005, while income should be zł.177.48 billion. The projected budget deficit will be zł.39.4 billion, which would be 4.2 percent of GDP.

IBnGR initially estimated that the budget deficit for 2005 would reach zł.46.29 billion. "Very good results by the state budget in the third quarter have caused us to correct our budget prognosis. We estimate that the income of the state budget will be around 1.6 percent higher than planned," IBnGR's Wojciech Misiąg said. Lower expenses, which should save the budget around zł.4 billion, are a result of a delay in the implementation of EU-funded projects. However, 2005's good figures could be the result of the postponement of these expenses until 2006.

Unlike the Ministry of Finance's figures, IBnGR includes the refunded assets of the Social Security Fund (ZUS) resulting from premiums sent to retirement funds. Hence, its figures are much higher than the Ministry's budget-deficit estimate, which is around zł.32.58 billion.