Szczurek: General government deficit might have exceeded 3.3% GDP in 2014

The general government deficit, i.e. the deficit of the central and local governments and the social security funds controlled by these units, might have exceeded 3.3 percent in 2014, Polish Finance Minister Mateusz Szczurek told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. This is because of the inclusion of the PKP PLK rail projects in the public finance sector and lower VAT revenues in January, which according to the EU tax accounting rules, are included in the previous year's financial perspective. Additionally, the bankruptcies of the two SKOK credit unions resulted in the compensation of PLN 3.2 billion worth covered by the Bank Guarantee Fund. According to Szczurek, the public finance deficit will stand at some 3.0 percent. This means that Poland would be able to exit the excessive debt procedure in 2018, and not in 2016 as was earlier predicted. In consequence, the government will not lower the VAT tax to 22 percent before 2018.