Poland will rein in its public deficit to below the EU-mandated 3.0 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, down from 6.5 percent forecast for 2011, the finance minister said on Thursday. "We're absolutely determined to maintain" this goal, Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski told TOK FM commercial radio.
A fresh European Commission forecast issued on Thursday warned of recession in the EU next year, but it predicted that Poland would be among the 27-member bloc's few islands of real growth. The Commission's forecast looks to a 2.5-percent rise in Poland's gross domestic product in 2012 and 2.8 percent in 2013, after a robust 4.0 percent this year. An EU member since 2004 and not yet a eurozone member, Poland was the only state in the 27-member bloc to buck recession in 2009, scoring 1.7 GDP growth.
Re-elected for a second consecutive four-year term, the outgoing cabinet of centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk is expected to re-nominate Rostowski to his post. Tusk must submit his choices for a new cabinet by November 22 to the president before seeking parliamentary approval.
Rostowski said Thursday he would announce "structural economic reforms" - likely on November 18 - aimed at streamlining the Polish economy so it is better equipped to deal with the looming crisis, but declined to provide details. Poland's president on Tuesday urged the country's new parliament to take brave and swift action in tackling reforms to protect the country's economy from the fallout of the eurozone debt crisis.
Speaking at the inaugural session of parliament after the October 9 general election, President Bronislaw Komorowski insisted reforms in the legislative, justice and health sectors were crucial to the securing the country's future. Turning his attention to the eurozone's festering debt crisis, Rostowski - a British-trained economist - said Thursday eurozone politicians were proving "unable to manage the crisis."
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