WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s state budget deficit may amount to around 100 billion zloty ($25.94 billion) in 2020, Finance Minister Tadeusz Koscinski said on Wednesday, as the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic made previous fiscal plans unrealistic.
“We can preliminarily assume that this deficit will amount to around 100 billion zloty,” Koscinski told reporters, adding that he expects the economy to shrink around 4.5-4.6% this year.
Earlier, the government had planned a 2020 budget without a deficit, according to local methodology. In the first half of the year, Poland’s budget deficit amounted to around 17 billion zloty.
(Reporting by Anna Koper; Writing by Marcin Goclowski)
