Poland, Slovakia Need Budget Cuts Akin to Ireland’s, OECD Says

Poland and Slovakia need to cut their budget deficits by as much as Ireland, which may seek an international bailout, to ensure sustainable debt levels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

The OECD put the two eastern European Union members in a group of countries with the second-highest fiscal consolidation needs among its 33 members in a report released today. The report compared so-called underlying primary balance, which exclude debt payments and strip out the effects of recession and one-time items, as a percentage of gross domestic product.