Poland To Relax Budget and Fiscal Rules to Stimulate Economy

Poland’s government, facing the slowest economic growth since the 1990s, unveiled plans today to widen the budget deficit by 16 billion zloty ($4.95 billion) and suspend rules limiting fiscal stimulus.

Budget revenue will fall about 24 billion zloty ($7.4 billion), or 8 percent, short of the 2013 plan as economic growth slows amid eroding consumer confidence and a euro-region crisis that proved “more protracted than expected,” Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski told reporters at a news conference in Warsaw. The government seeks more than 8 billion zloty in extra spending cuts, lowering the country’s structural deficit even as this year’s budget shortfall widens, he said.