BRUSSELS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Belgium and Poland have taken effective measures to reduce their budget deficits for 2012, the European Commission said on Wednesday, following its earlier warning that the two countries were not on track to meet their targets.
The EU's executive was critical, however, of Hungary, which it said had not made sufficient progress in tackling its excessive deficit.
'Belgium, Cyprus, Malta and Poland - the other countries that were at risk of not meeting their deadlines of 2011 or 2012 to correct their excessive deficit - have taken effective action,' the Commission said in a statement.
Belgium's government agreed on Friday it would freeze 1.3 billion euros in addition to 11.3 billion euros of savings already planned.
It is aiming to cut its deficit to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, below the EU limit of 3 percent, from an estimated 4.2 percent last year.
Earlier this month Poland's Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said his country would stick to the goal of reducing its deficit in 2012 to below 3 percent of gross domestic product.
In a letter to European Commissioner Olli Rehn, Rostowski wrote that despite the euro zone crisis and its possible spillover effects, Warsaw is on track to cut its budget gap to below 3 percent of GDP.
Rehn, the EU's economic and monetary affairs chief, had warned in November that Poland was among five European Union states at risk of breaching fiscal rules in 2012.
(Reporting By Ben Deighton and John O'Donnell) Keywords: EU BELGIUM/DEFICIT
(ben.deighton@thomsonreuters.com)(+32 2287 6811)(Reuters Messaging: rm://ben.deighton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
0 comments:
Post a Comment