This is how Poland will defend itself against inflation
What happens in Poland, between the shield against inflation and the new wave of infections. The point of Pierluigi Mennitti of Eastsidereport.info
A shield against inflation to protect citizens from rising prices. This is what the Polish conservative government promised, which intends in this way to react to the loss of purchasing power due to the hike in prices, which in Warsaw they do not consider temporary.
It is a mix of measures in line with the economic and social policy, which is one of the pillars of the lasting consensus that the Justice and Freedom party (Pis) continues to enjoy in the majority of the electorate, despite the many open controversies. Both internally, where tension remains high with the youth movements of the cities for restrictions on the abortion law, and externally: with the European Union for justice and media and with Belarus for blackmailing migrants.
TAX CUTS ON HEATING AND FUELS
The first piece of the anti-inflation package under study will concern the tax cut: the government promises to reduce VAT on heating from 23 to 8%. As for fuels, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stressed that in addition to lowering the consumption tax and zeroing the emissions tax, it also intends to reduce the retail tax. "Fuels are not included in the trade tax, which should lower the price of fuel by about a dozen pfennigs", added the premier, "and together with other measures, this could lead to a reduction in the price of fuel per liter of 20-25 cents, according to more optimistic estimates of even 30 cents ".
EXPAND THE ASSISTANCE NETWORK
The second step concerns the expansion of the assistance network with the idea of extending the group of beneficiaries of the so-called protection allowance to seven million families. In this case, according to rumors of the Polish press, a financial support intervention is foreseen in two phases, modulated according to the size of the families.
"We have begun to implement the inflation shield assumptions with the aim of protecting households from price increases," Morawiecki explained, "but if inflation does not show a significant downward trend by the second quarter of next year , we will continue to act and support Polish citizens ”.
THE FOURTH WAVE OF COVID IS ADDED TO INFLATION
As with the financial crises of the 1910s, even in the face of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, the Polish economy reacted dynamically and the decreases in GDP were more contained than in other European countries. This allows the government to use a small treasure, which is naturally accompanied by the funds received from the EU as part of the post-Covid recovery measures.
But the pandemic did not end in Poland either. After a quieter phase than its central European neighbors (Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), infections have started to rise again, with particular vigor in regions with lower vaccination rates. The latest numbers relating to 1 December report 19,100 new infections for an incidence (new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 7 days) of 429.6, not much lower than the German one. The number of deaths is higher, 528, also due to a weaker hospital system than in Western countries. Poland risks discounting the low quota of double vaccination (not to mention the third doses): according to official data only 54% of Poles have been immunized with two doses. Thus the government could be forced to reintroduce those general measures that had hitherto been avoided. At the moment, restrictions on crowding have been reintroduced in bars and restaurants, hotels, cinemas and theaters.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/polonia-inflazione-contagi-coronavirus/ on Thu, 02 Dec 2021 10:19:47 +0000.