Finance Minister: Poland may link to euro next year, adopt the currency in 2012

Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said Wednesday that Poland could decide whether to link the zloty to the euro as early as next year with the aim of adopting it by 2012.

But he warned that any such move was not yet a done deal and depended on several factors, including stemming inflation and getting Poland's fiscal deficit under control, he told a meeting of bankers in the capital, Warsaw. Any decision is also incumbent on a restoration of stability in world markets.

"We don't rule out" entering the European Union's Exchange Rate Mechanism in 2009, "which means we could adopt the euro in 2012, but we aren't committing to that," Rostowski said.

He said Poland's euro strategy "isn't aimed at delaying euro entry, but making sure entry is safe."

Rostowski's remarks fleshed out what has emerged as a cautious approach by the government to adopting the 15-nation euro under the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a bid to avoid failed convergence efforts in the Baltics and Hungary.

Source: iht.com