Worsening current account deficit shows economic recovery still distant

The current account deficit in February reached $789 million, exceeding anal ysts' expectations. Seen as a percentage of GDP the deficit rose from 3.9% i n January to 4.0% in February and is expected to be as high as 4.8% to 5.0% by the end of the year. The value of imports was some $440 million lower tha n in January, at $2,978 million, despite a sharp rise in imports of used car s. Meanwhile, exports stood at $2,202 million in February against $2,308 mil lion the month before. The figures are feeding fears that an economic recove ry remains a distant prospect. The experts underlined the fact that the rece nt poor export performance is partly due to the economic slowdown in the Eur opean Union (EU). "It's not surprising that exports have fallen. It's rather strange that they proved to be so immune to the worsening of the economic cl imate in the EU for such a long time," said Maciej Reluga, economist with IN G Bank-Slaski. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1; Reuters) M.K.