Officials said Monday that Poland intends to sign an international copyright treaty criticized as a clampdown on freedom of speech by online activists who launched attacks on government websites.

Several dozen motorists Monday drove past government offices in central Warsaw in slow motion, in a protest calling for the authorities to lower petrol prices.

Poland’s public finance sector deficit in 2011 could turn out to be lower than the 5.6% of GDP forecast by the government, and is expected to fall to below 3% of GDP this year, deputy Finance Minister Ludwik Kotecki said.

CPI remains high mainly due to rising food and fuel prices but should reach the central bank’s 2.5% inflation target at end of Q3 or start of Q4, according to deputy Finance Minister Ludwik Kotecki.

The International Monetary Fund has said that Poland remains qualified to obtain a flexible credit line following a review.

Listed bank PKO BP is expecting a record net profit in 2011, while its results this year are expected to be “stable” compared to the last two years, CEO Zbigniew Jagiello said.

Power group Enea has said it has signed a 20-year deal starting from 2017 with coal mining group Bogdanka for coal supplies needed by Enea's new power block at the Kozienice power plant.

Advertising revenues for Gazeta Wyborcza, media group Agora's flagship daily newspaper, fell 14.9% y/y to PLN 664.4 million last year, according to Kantor Media price-list data quoted by wirtualnemedia.pl.

The American embassy in Warsaw has won first prize for the best Polish-language embassy website in this country.

Power group Energa says it has started preparing a one-billion-euro eurobond issue, but a final decision will depend on the situation on financial markets.

Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski is facing internal opposition within the government over his proposal to set a cap on the maximum deficit that can be run up by local authorities, the Puls Biznesu daily reported.

Global IT giant HP is considering opening a Knowledge Processing Outsourcing center in Poland and may employ up to 500 staff there, the Rzeczpospolita and Parkiet dailies have reported.

Poland will likely see GDP growth decelerate to 2.5% this year, Natixis bank analysts have forecast.

Exports of Polish agricultural and food products rose 12% last year to 13.8 billion euros.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has appointed Pawel Tamborski as undersecretary of state in the Treasury Ministry, the ministry said on its website.