The budget deficit is expected to be no more than PLN 82.3 billion (around EUR 18 billion, USD 21 billion) next year, state news agency PAP reported.
Government revenue is expected to total PLN 404.4 billion in 2021, with spending set at PLN 486.7 billion.
Finance Minister Tadeusz Kościński said last month that the draft 2021 budget would be "another stage in the plan to get back on the path of growth after the global COVID-19 lockdown."
The proposed budget ensures full financing for the government’s key social assistance projects, including its flagship "500-plus" child benefit programme and subsidised school supplies for children nationwide, officials have said.
Meanwhile, health spending is expected to increase to 5.3 percent of GDP, and defence spending is expected to grow to 2.2 percent of GDP next year.
Coronavirus impact
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the government last month adopted plans to revise Poland’s 2020 budget, with the deficit this year expected to reach PLN 109.3 billion (EUR 24.9 billion, USD 29.5 billion).
Poland’s lawmakers in July voted 237 to 212, with no abstentions, to approve the government’s handling of the country’s 2019 budget.
Poland finished 2019 with a budget deficit of PLN 13.7 billion (around EUR 3.1 billion, USD 3.6 billion), roughly half of the original PLN 28.5 billion target, according to a government report.
Government revenue totaled PLN 400.5 billion in 2019, while spending stood at PLN 414.3 billion, according to the report approved by the lower house of parliament on July 24.
According to the state-run Central Statistical Office (GUS), the Polish economy grew 2 percent in the first quarter of this year, but then contracted 8.2 percent in the second quarter amid the coronavirus crisis.
(gs)
Source: PAP/IAR