Aleksander Laszek

Lowering the retirement age is contrary to the plan of Mateusz Morawiecki, Minister of Economy, which rightly linked in one of the documents the decline in working-age population with a slowdown in economic growth. It will put a drag on catching up with the Western Europe\'s living standards.

The VAT base in Poland has its weaknesses due to both domestic and EU polices. National authorities overuse reduced rates, making the VAT system too complicated and problematic for businesses while a zero rate on intra-EU trade incentivizes fraud.

Polish economic policy should aim to increase the country’s resilience and strengthen economic foundations. The safety margin, in the form of ensuring the appropriate fiscal space, must be maintained not only because of tensions in the world economy, but also in terms ofpossibly less sharp, cyclical slowdown.

The cost of payment backlogs is not limited to the cost of maintaining the liquidity of the company. In addition to the interest on bank loans, one should also take into account all the additional costs associated with the monitoring of payments from contractors, chasing late payments, and growing risks caused by the delays.

The EC’s decision to start an in-depth investigation into Poland’s tax on the retail sector is undoubtedly right as this additional tax imposed on large stores is unjustified and harmful. It should be up to a consumer’s individual choice where to go shopping.

Taking a loan in a foreign currency puts both borrowers and banks at risk. At the time of signing the contract, both providers and takers neglected the possible weakening of Polish zloty, believing in its further strengthening. Besides the fact that one can easily learn about it from various sources, the majority of borrowers knew that such a danger exists.

A need for deregulation in Poland is recognized by the vast majority of both experts and politicians. Calls for deregulation echo in subsequent election campaigns, though to little effect. So why, despite a seemingly broad consensus, deregulation in Poland remains a problem?

Ageing of the Polish society means that every year more and more people will reach the retirement age. At the same time, the number of people of working age will be decreasing. In this context, it appears that the pension system reform implemented in 1999 introduced a not very fortunate principle to the Polish pension system.

It is definitely not a small amount; in 2012 alone the expenditure of the state oscillated around 680 billion PLN, and speaking more lucidly, 18,261 PLN per person.

The addition of the fully-funded pillar to the pre-existent PAYG pension systems increases the security of a pension