WARSAW: Poland’s government is having a hard time coming to grips with economic growth that fell far short of the level it targeted last year.
With gross domestic product set for its first sub-3 percent gain since 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last week that Poland’s expansion in 2014 and 2015 should be revised downward because of “fictitious” exports of electronic equipment related to value-added-tax fraud.
That could have inflated output by 30 billion zloty ($7.4 billion) — or almost 2 percent of GDP — in each of those two years, resulting in an unfavorable comparison for 2016, according to Morawiecki, who also serves as finance minister in the Law & Justice party-led cabinet.
GDP added 2.7 percent last year, down from 3.9 percent in 2015 and 3.3 percent in 2014, according to the median of 22 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The Central Statistical Office in Warsaw is scheduled to release the data at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. As recently as in May, officials were predicting growth in excess of 4 percent for 2016 and at 5 percent this year. Fourth-quarter figures are due to be published Feb. 14.
