Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has praised the economic policy of the incumbent Law and Justice (PiS) government and said that PiS is leaving the public finances in very good condition.
The results of Poland’s October 15 parliamentary elections indicate the new government may be formed by three former opposition parties.
In an interview published on the Interia news website on November 4, Morawiecki responded to comments made by Ludwik Kotecki, a member of the Monetary Policy Council, who in his text published on Money.pl portal, said that “we have a record budget deficit and record borrowing needs.”
Morawiecki called Kotecki’s comments “demagoguery” and explained that foreign debt servicing costs “are increasing due to the pandemic, inflation, the war in Ukraine and geopolitical risks.”
“I admit they are increasing, but it has nothing to do with PiS’s economic policy. These costs are increasing similarly in the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia,” he said.
When asked about falling tax revenues Morawiecki admitted that given all the “protective shields” or government aid packages as well as, CIT and PIT tax cuts, they “are not growing that dynamically, but we have to be held accountable for eight years”.
He argued further that with tax cuts of almost PLN 60 billion (EUR 13.5 billion) PiS had doubled revenues to the state budget.
“That’s a 115% increase. Please show me another country in the world, which, with such a tax cut, would more than double its budget. These are Eurostat data,” he said.
When asked about opposition’s allegations about spending outside the state budget, Morawiecki replied: “I understand the voices of the (main opposition party Civic) Platform’s propagandists. I understand dark PR experts, adepts of Goebbels’ philosophy that a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth. But the truth is that we leave finances public in very good condition.” (PAP/Business World Magazine)
