Poland stands a better chance for development as the country reclaimed several billion euros in regional aid that were under threat after the new EU budget deal was sealed last week, a senior official said Monday.

Jaroslaw Pietras, Poland's Minister for European Affairs, said on Monday that Poland, the largest of 10 nations that joined the EU last year, will receive over 91 billion euros (92.91 billion U.S. dollars) from the 2007-2013 EU budget.

The money includes some 60 billion euros of EU structural and cohesion funds and nearly 27 billion euros for the country's agricultural sector.

There is also 3.9 billion euros for research and development as part of the 2002 Lisbon Strategy and 581 million euros for protection of state borders and fighting terrorism, said Pietras.

Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said Monday that the EU budget would not have increased to 1.045 percent of the bloc's GDP if Poland had not negotiated hard in Brussels.

Poland's current inflation is only 1 percent, below a target determined by the Polish National Bank, the central bank, and low inflation is not good for growth as the economy should now be stimulated, not cooled, Marcinkiewicz said.

Speaking in a program carried by Catholic broadcasters TV Maryja and Radio Trwam, the prime minister pledged to urge the Council of Monetary Policy, Poland's economic watchdog, and the central bank to hammer out policies that are needed to accelerate the country's economic growth.

Source: Xinhua