Minister of Finance on this year's inflation: If it goes up, it will be only slightly

In an interview for TVP Info, the Minister of Finance reminded that our country must invest in renewable energy sources. There was also criticism of the predecessors. – The government is taking and will continue to take action to ensure that energy prices in Poland are simply lower. Over the last eight years, PiS has practically completely abandoned the energy transformation, said Domański.

Domański: We must radically accelerate the energy transformation

– We have the largest share of energy produced from coal in the European Union, and this energy is very, very expensive, which is a problem for the entire Polish economy and for Polish industry. That is why we must radically accelerate the energy transformation towards renewable energy sources, and in the medium and long term – also towards nuclear energy – he pointed out.

The head of the Ministry of Finance also tried to explain the source of the growing VAT gap. In his opinion, the previous government only touched on this issue when the gap was decreasing. – However, we can clearly see that the last two years of PiS rule have seen a radical increase in the VAT gap, which, according to estimates by officials of the Ministry of Finance, exceeded 15% in the previous year, so in fact we have a very significant increase in the VAT gap – he emphasized.

He noted, however, that it may result from the business cycle. He explained that PiS had achieved a point where the economic growth rate was 0.2 percent. He announced that this year the rate will return to 3.1%. – In a situation when the economy is not growing, unfortunately the VAT gap is increasing and we saw it very clearly in the data for 2023 – said Andrzej Domański.

What inflation awaits us at the end of 2024?

The politician also tried to estimate what inflation would be at the end of the year. – Thanks to the government's actions, inflation will be a full percentage point lower this year and similarly next year, so it is clear that the government has taken very decisive actions to ensure that electricity prices, gas prices and heat prices are under very strong control – he said .

– If this inflation goes up, it will be only slightly, I expect that at the end of this year we will have inflation of around 4%, maybe 4.5%. and then it will gradually go down again – he reassured.