Finance Minister Jan Vincent Rostowski has met with EU Economic Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in Brussels.

The Polish minister said he does not agree with the pessimistic forecast contained in the European Commission report regarding the country’s growing budget deficit. He argued that Brussels hadn’t taken into account Poland’s better situation in regard to other Union countries, for example in production growth registered in March. Both officials stood by their opinions.

Speaking to reporters after their talks, minister Rostowski showed disappointment with the course of the meeting: “Everyone has the right to make predictions and everyone takes responsibility for them. I do not want to assess the Commission’s pronouncements too harshly. This is generally a difficult period for such evaluations. Maybe they thought they’ve been too optimistic with regard to other countries in the past and decided on a different approach. But the argument, I understand, is that it’s better to have any predictions than none.”

Forecast figures presented by the EC on Monday show a folding tendency for Poland’s economy with GDP shrinking by 1.4 percent. The Finance Ministry in Warsaw admits to a predicted 1 percent drop. At the same time the Commission spoke of Poland’s budget deficit rising to 6.6 percent of the GDP, while domestic estimates run no higher than 4.5 percent.

SS