Ring your priest’s mobile

The first Christian mobile phone network is to be launched in Poland in September – Father Maciej Chibowski, head of the project, has told TVN24. The subscribers will be predominantly priests, monks and those connected with the Polish Roman Catholic Church, as well as the faithful.

As Chibowski underlines the project is part of the “New Evangelization through media” preached by John Paul II. The offer of this unique mobile operator is directed primarily to the church itself, communities and associations gathering within it.

The new operator will be a virtual operator using the technical infrastructure of another operator - Orange, TVN24 reports.

The network is to offer only the pre-paid mode. It should be possible to charge the account using a cash machine or stationary phone and the amount will be added to the monthly phone bill.

According to TVN24 the users of the Christian network will be able to receive special text messages with quotes from the bible for the day, the patron saints’ name-book, quotations schedules of Catholic radio and TV stations etc.

The project lauched by Warsaw priests under the guidance of Archbishop Sławoj Leszek Gódź is being developed in conjunction with the MNI Mobile virtual operator. The authors are hoping for 100,000 subscribers during the first year and describe the target as being 2 million users later on.

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ECONOMIC MONITOR

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• ● In December 2009 and January 2010, as in previous months in the second half of 2009, the Polish economy stood out against other countries in terms of GDP growth. Poland’s economic growth was higher than projected and higher than in other European countries.
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• In 2009 construction output increased by 3.7%.
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• Retail sales increase in most product groups.
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• On the Warsaw Stock Exchange, stock prices were very volatile in January 2010.
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• At the end of December 2009 the registered unemployment rate (claimant count rate) amounted to 11.9% versus 11.4% in November.
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• At the end of January the president signed the 2010 budget bill into law. The bill was adopted by the parliament on December 18.
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• In the fourth quarter of 2009 the Polish economy turned out to be more resistant to the global crisis than had been projected and than the economies of Polish neighbours, something which boosts optimism in forecasts for 2010 and the next years.
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Retail sales up again in June
Retail sales growth in nominal terms accelerated in June to 6.4% y-o-y from 4.3% y-o-y in May. The increase was higher than expected. In real terms, retail sales growth accelerated to 4.5% y-o-y from 2.0% y-o-y. June was a consecutive month with retail sales figures stronger than expected, which indicates that consumption is recovering after it slowed significantly at the beginning of the year. Private consumption is driven by an improvement on the labour market coupled with a rise in disposable incomes. In Q2 2010 retail sales grew by around 3% y-o-y in nominal terms and around 1% y-o-y in real terms. On the basis of retail sales and industrial production data, it can be estimated that the GDP growth rate was close to 3%.

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