WARSAW: Finance Minister Mateusz Szczurek told that Poland only missed fiscal convergence in 2014 on account of a key fiscal reform and therefore qualifies to leave the EU’s excessive deficit procedure already this year,.
Poland ended 2014 with a general government deficit at 3.2% of GDP, above the EU’s standard 3.0% threshold for fiscal health that would warrant removal of EU-mandated fiscal constraints, known as the excessive deficit procedure. Poland beats the measure for debt levels.
The 2014 deficit “is insignificantly above 3%, but the systemic costs of the pension reform reduce it to 2.8% and allow for removal of the procedure already this year, in our view,” Szczurek said during a morning interview on public radio.