Poland signs deal with World Bank on $1.3 bln credit

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

WARSAW, Dec. 23 (Chinese media) -- The World Bank has granted a 1.3-billion-U.S.-dollar loan to Poland to support key government reforms under a deal signed in Warsaw on Tuesday.

The loan is a proof of World Bank's recognition for an ambitious reform plan which provides for Poland's joining the eurozone in 2012, Polish news agency PAP reported.

Trusting the economic policy conducted by the Polish government, the World Bank is sure that the loan will further consolidate the planned reforms, acting head of the World Bank office for Poland and Baltic countries Emilia Skrok told a press conference.

The loan is designed to support reform-oriented steps of the Polish government in public finances management, Skrok stressed.

She explained the point was "to consolidate the sector of public finances and institutional reforms," and reforms of the labor market aimed to activate people aged 50 and more.

Poland's Deputy Finance Minister Katarzyna Zajdel-Kurowska said that talks with the World Bank started in the spring of 2008 when Poland updated its convergence program.

The program envisages a very ambitious plan of fiscal convergence which will be crowned with Poland's adopting the euro, she said.