Reuters/Warsaw

Poland’s ruling centre-right Civic Platform (PO) party yesterday promised to curb the budget deficit and public debt if it wins another four-year term in the Oct.9 parliamentary polls.
PO disillusioned many supporters by not delivering on the liberal economic reforms promised in the 2007 election campaign, but surveys show it is still well ahead of its rivals and on track to win re-election this autumn, largely thanks to the relative weakness of the two main opposition parties.
“We will balance public finances in 2015 and lower the debt to GDP ratio to 48% and further to 40% in 2018,” PO’s deputy head and Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told a congress presenting the party’s programme.
Poland’s general government deficit stood at nearly 8% last year and Warsaw wants to cut it to just below the European Union’s ceiling of 3% of GDP next year in targeting a shortfall of 5.6% in 2011.
Poland’s relatively strong economic performance during the global economic crisis, when it was the only EU member to avoid recession, has helped PO’s ratings giving it a strong chance of becoming the first party to win a second consecutive term since Poland overthrew communism in 1989.
Surveys, however, show PO may not win enough parliamentary seats to rule alone and be forced to seek a coalition with the current junior government partner, the Peasants’ Party (PSL), or the leftists opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD).
Sikorski also said a new PO government would increase tax breaks for families with three or more children and assign potential state revenues from future shale gas production to support pension pay-outs.
PO’s main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS), says it would tax banks and, possibly, raise taxation for the country’s most affluent to finance more generous public spending on healthcare and education, among others, if it wins the autumn race.