Finance

Home page

Finance

Poland won’t adopt Euro by 2016

21 February 2012 14:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. The euro has lost some of its shine for Poland, which is why the country wonâ€™t enter the European Unionâ€™s single-currency bloc by 2016, said Polandâ€™s central bank governor Marek Belka, Wall Street Journal reported.

In excerpts from an interview posted by the central bank on its website Monday, Mr. Belka said â€œno one is eagerâ€ to replace the zloty with the euro, and that his country wonâ€™t adopt the euro during his term of office, which ends in 2016. Considering the euroâ€™s crisis, Poland â€œisnâ€™t irrationalâ€ in dragging its feet to join the euro area, he added.

â€œToday, the euroâ€™s attractiveness for Poland is somewhat smaller, although it should be kept in mind that economic and political costs of remaining outside the euro zone are considerable,â€ he was quoted as saying.

Poland is obliged by its EU accession treaty to eventually join the euro zone. It has no accession target, however, and doesnâ€™t currently meet most of the euro entry criteria, including limits on government deficit and currency volatility.

Polandâ€™s currency is an attractive target for speculation, while its volatility is bad for the economy, Mr. Belka also said. The currency is volatile mainly due to Polandâ€™s need for external financing, he said.

Soon after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the zloty gave back most of the gains against the euro it had made since 2004.

It has remained highly volatile, prompting the central bank to intervene last year during bouts of dramatic weakness as investors exited emerging markets amid the euroâ€™s crisis.