WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Polish inflation may temporarily exceed the
inflation criteria for joining the euro this year, but should again meet the
requirement in 2009, Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said in a interview
published on Friday.
"When it comes to inflation criteria it is likely that we will exceed it for
some time," he was quoted as saying in newspaper Gazeta Prawna. "I believe we
will again comply with the inflation criteria in 2009."
Earlier this week Rostowski repeated it was possible Poland will lock its
currency in the ERM-2 exchange rate mechanism, in which euro candidates must
spend at least two years, in mid-2009.
Slovakia, on Wednesday, was the first of the EU's former communist economies
to pass the fitness tests for euro zone entry. Its larger neighbours, including
Poland, are not expected to try to join until at least 2012.
Polish inflation climbed to 4.1 percent in March and the central bank raised
interest rates seven times in past year to tame growing price pressure amid
soaring wages and the economy's fastest growth in a decade.
pawel.sobczak@thomsonreuters.com +48 22 447 2430
ps2/slj
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