News Parkiet

Inflation

Polish financial services getting more

expensive

The prices of financial services in Poland rose at an average rate of 5.7 percent, or 1.7-percentage points ahead the country?s HICP inflation rate in March this year, Eurostat said recently. On average, Poles are spending almost four times as much as Hungarians on fees for various financial services, which account for more than 2 percent of consumer expenses here, Eurostat data shows.

According to Eurostat definition, financial services include banking fees, commissions charged by stockbrokers and bureaus d?echange, brokers selling third-party financial products, fees paid to tax advisors and private pension funds.

Petrochemicals

Nafta Polska to seek investors for Lotos

in Middle East

Once the initial public offering of Grupa Lotos, Poland?s second largest rafinery, is completed, its largest shareholder, oil industry privatization agency Nafta Polska, plans to seek for an investor for the company, said Nafta Polska CEO Adam Sęk. He expects Grupa Lotos?s stake may be of interest to oil companies from the Middle East and Russia. Sęk also rules out the possibility to merge Grupa Lotos with PKN Orlen, country?s largest rafinery, as the transaction wouldn?t conform to governmental program, which says two independent oil centers should exist in Poland. Grupa Lotos plans to list on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in June.