INTERVIEW Polish finance minister wants deficit cut by 3-4 bln zlotys - official

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's likely new finance minister is in favour of cutting the 2008 budget deficit by 3-4 bln zlotys from the 28.6 bln planned by the outgoing conservative cabinet, a senior official from the new administration said today.

Central European University Professor Jacek Rostowski has not spoken to Polish media since he emerged as the new pro-business administration's candidate for finance minister.

But the pro-business Civic Platform party's leading light on economic policy, Zbigniew Chlebowski, told Thomson Financial News he had already agreed with Rostowski on a cut in next year's deficit.

'I have agreed with Professor Rostowski that is may be possible to lower the deficit to around 25 bln zlotys,' Chlebowski said.

'In the course of the next year, if strong economic growth continues, there is a chance we will be able to lower it further.'

He gave no clear indication of Rostowski's views on the euro, for which markets are watching keenly, hoping that the new minister will support a swift drive to adopt the single currency early next decade.

Chlebowski reiterated that the budget would be sent in the same form to the Sejm (Poland's lower house) as the draft approved by the current cabinet, and that any changes would be made in committee work on it.

'From my conversations with Professor Rostowski it appears that he is surprised by the rise in spending in the budget assumed by the outgoing government,' Chlebowski said.

'We will try to limit some of this spending. But we have to remember that we have to raise teachers' wages.'

Source: By Paweł Sobczak,

forbes.com