as illustrated in table 3 below. in some cases, a significant part of national workforce took up employment in foreign countries. it is estimated, for instance, that ca. 5 % of lithuanians took employment in the countries that opened their labour markets to the new eu member states following 1 may 2004. a thorough analysis that shows what services may be traded internationally is available in the study by jensen b., kletzer l. ( 2005 ) “ tradable services : understanding the scope and impact of services offshoring ”, institute for international economics working paper, 5 - 9 september 2005. the world bank ( 2006 ) “ global economic prospects. economic implications of remittances and migration ”, washington dc, 2006. table 2. number of work permits in the uk, ireland, and sweden, issued to citizens of new member states in the post - accession period in % of workforce † thousand uk * ireland * * sweden * * * total lithuania 44. 72 26. 37 0. 37 71. 46 4. 4 latvia estonia poland the czech republic 23. 03 4. 68 204. 90 20. 01 12. 94 3. 39 70. 14 6. 39 0. 16 0. 36 2. 16 0. 07 36. 14 8. 43 277. 20 26. 47 3. 2 1. 3 1. 6 0. 5 hungary 10. 35 3. 83 0. 20 14. 37 0. 3 slovakia 36. 36 10. 93 0. 09 47. 38 1. 8 source : accession monitoring reports, http : / / www. ind. homeofice. gov. uk. data for may 2004 through december 2005. nbp calculations. source : skills needs in the irish economy : the role of migration, a submission by the expert group on future skills needs and forfas to the minister for enterprise, trade & employment, http : / / www. skillsireland. ie. data for may 2004 through august 2005. source : migracje specjalistow wysokiej klasy w kontekscie członkostwa polski w unii europejskiej, [ eng. migration of high class specialists in the context of polish membership in the eu ]. centre of migration research, warsaw university. data for may 2004 through december 2004. † workforce – persons aged 15 and over in the first quarter of 2004. the number of poles working in the uk is growing rapidly. everyone

##cive to keeping economic growth at a pace, which is consistent with the potential output growth, determined by the structural features of the polish economy. the fact that inflation and core inflation has stayed below the previous forecasts for a relatively long period may be an indication that the impact of the factors which may slow down the returning of inflation to the target in relation to that accounted for in the projection is stronger than previously assumed. factors which could potentially accelerate the return of inflation back to the target include a higher wage growth than assumed in the projection, provided it would not be accompanied by national bank of poland “ financial stability review report ”, warsaw, september 2005 national bank of poland “ financial system development in poland 2004 ”, warsaw, november 2005 h. koskenkyla, ed. “ finnish financial markets 2002 ”, bank of finland, 2003 monetary policy committee statement, 26 april 2006 sufficiently fast increase of productivity, further oil price hikes or a deterioration of the public finance situation in relation to that envisaged in the convergence programme. the council maintains its belief that the most favourable scenario for poland would be to implement an economic strategy focused on creating conditions which would ensure the introduction of the euro at the earliest possible date, which would be conducive to a higher long - term economic growth. ”, end quote. public finances prospects this brings me to the developments in public finances. the fiscal outlook over the medium - term future would be broadly positive, if it were not for substantial risks, mainly political, surrounding the deficit path. in 2005, poland recorded an esa ’ 95 deficit of 2. 5 % of gdp. this corresponds to a deficit of 4. 4 % of gdp with the pension funds classified outside the general government sector, which will be the binding methodology from next year onwards and which is therefore the relevant methodology for assessing poland ’ s future compliance with the european fiscal rules. this implies that poland is 1. 4 percentage points away from meeting the maastricht fiscal criteria. it is not a demanding medium - term consolidation target for an economy with an expected real gdp growth of close to 5 percent, providing a very good environment to reduce the ratio of public spending to gdp. it is worth noting that germany may achieve consolidation of this magnitude over the 2006 - 2008 period, without such a favorable growth environment. however, the convergence programme 15 presented by the government in january of this year, does not foresee fulfilment of the deficit criterion in the programme horizon ; in