Will effect will new Ministry policy on currency purchases have?

On Thursday Jacek Tomorowicz, the director of the foreign affairs department in the Finance Ministry, informed the press that his department is preparing a policy of informing the market about planned acquisitions of foreign currency from the market to service the national foreign debt. However, he added, "The market cannot expect that we will inform exactly about the timing or the rate of exchange which we will use for such operations". The Ministry previously said that it was going to acquire foreign currencies from the market and not from the National Bank of Poland (NBP), as it usually did. NBP President Leszek Balcerowicz said on Wednesday that the rules of acquiring money from the market should be transparent. Last week, rumours that the Ministry was preparing to buy currencies from the market weakened the zloty. (www.biznes.onet.pl) M.M.