ZUS new computer system not expected to be online until end of the year

The Social Insurance Company's (ZUS) computer system will not reach its full effectiveness until the end of this year. That is the main reason of possible delays in transferring parts of premiums due to Open Pension Funds (OFE). ZUS vice-president Adam Kapica explains this situation is caused mostly by a large number of errors, which appear in financial documents coming to ZUS. Every month about 2 million documents demand correction. A new computer program designed especially for ZUS was to improve the speed of premium transfer. It resulted in the largest numbers of documents being transferred, but did not eliminate the errors. Kapica assures that all delayed premiums will be transferred together with rates due. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 22) A.D. Current account deficit higher than expected, zloty jolted but markets stable Yesterday the National Bank of Poland (NBP) said the current account deficit reached 8.3 % of GDP or $1.43 billion. This information surprised economists who were expecting the deficit to be $1.3 billion. After the information was released the dollar increased its value by zl. 0.1 and reached zl. 4.59 for a moment. There was no panic on the market as bad news was expected and buying dollars began at the end of the previous week. There was however a bit of good information regarding the substantial increase in exports in March. "There are no reasons to foresee a crisis in the near future. We can expect it in a few years if we do not undertake any steps. We are protected by the high reserves of foreign currency," said Monetary Policy Council (RPP) member Cezary Jozefiak. Experts say the reason for such a high deficit may be the repayment of national debt the previous month, a decrease in unclassified trade (e.g. bazaars) and a drop in the balance of service. The experts are still optimistic and forecast the current account deficit to drop by the end of the year to under 8% of GDP. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 1, 22, Prawo i Gospodarka, 1, 2) M.M.