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Polish gov't adopts balanced budget for 2020

24.09.2019 13:52
Poland's government on Tuesday approved a balanced budget for 2020 that expects the economy to grow 3.7 percent, with inflation targeted at 2.5 percent.
Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Finance Minister Jerzy Kwieciński hold a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Finance Minister Jerzy Kwieciński hold a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday.Photo: PAP/Wojciech Olkuśnik

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting that the budget was "development-oriented" and ensured continued financing for his conservative government's key social assistance programmes.

Finance Minister Jerzy Kwieciński said that government revenue and spending next year would the highest since 1989.

He also told reporters that the government's 2020 GDP growth target of 3.7 percent was "a conservative one."

He added that Poland's economic growth this year could "significantly exceed" 4 percent of GDP and be "roughly three times the average in the euro area." Poland is not part of the euro currency area.

Government ministers have approved a deficit-free budget with revenue and spending balanced next year at PLN 429.5 billion (EUR 98.3 billion, USD 109.1 billion), state news agency PAP reported.

Morawiecki said last month that Poland’s 2020 budget would be the country’s first without a deficit since the fall of communism and the start of market reforms three decades ago.

The Polish economy grew 4.5 percent in the second quarter of this year, the country’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) said last month in a final estimate.

Morawiecki earlier in August hailed Poland's GDP expansion figures, saying they ranked the country "among European and global leaders in terms of economic growth."

Poland finished 2018 with a budget deficit of PLN 10.4 billion (some EUR 2.4 billion), just a quarter of the target for last year, the country's then-finance minister said in February.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP, TVP Info