The figure was included in an update of the country’s Convergence Programme, an annual financial document that every European Union member must send to Brussels by the end of April, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The document indicates that the government is bracing for a steep downturn in some of the economy’s key sectors in the second quarter of this year, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Growth is expected to pick up in the second half of the year.
Next year the Polish economy is expected to rebound to a level neutralizing this year’s contraction, the IAR news agency reported.
Forecasts no better than astrology: finance minister
Meanwhile, state news agency PAP on Wednesday quoted Poland's Finance Minister Tadeusz Kościński as saying that economic forecasting amid the still-unfolding COVID-19 crisis was “of about the same value as astrology.”
Kościński also told reporters that Poland’s ambitious balanced 2020 budget, which is based on targets adopted before the coronavirus crisis and expects the economy to grow 3.7 percent this year, would likely be revised at the end of June or the beginning of July, the PAP news agency reported.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank said earlier this month it expected Polish GDP growth this year to slow to 0.4 percent, followed by a possible rebound to around 2 percent in 2021.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP
