Poland gets 'super minister' for finance

Poland's prime minister on Wednesday tapped her powerful Development Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for the finance portfolio, creating what local media dubbed a "super minister" in a much-vaunted reshuffle of her controversial rightwing government. Law and Justice (PiS) Prime Minister Beata Szydlo also said she had appointed respected ex-banker Morawiecki, 48, as the head of a newly created government Economic Committee in charge of managing her populist administration's generous spending plans. She said that outgoing finance minister Pawel Szalamacha would take up another important role, but declined to reveal its nature. "He (Morawiecki) is the author of the Responsible Development plan, he will coordinate the work of the committee," Szydlo told reporters in Warsaw. "In connection with this structural change (Economic Committee), Minister Morawiecki is also nominated as the finance minister." The PiS won an October 2015 election on promises of generous social spending -- including a universal child benefit scheme -- raising concerns it could bloat Poland's moderate public debt. The government has pegged the 2017 deficit at 2.9 percent of GDP, or 59.3 billion zloty (13.8 billion euro, $15.5 billion). The figure totals around five billion zloty more in deficit spending over 2016, experts note, but meets the 3.0 percent of GDP deficit limit set for EU members. The government also dialled down its growth estimate for 2017 from 3.9 percent to 3.6 percent, with average annual inflation set to hit 1.3 percent. The IMF warned in July it expected spending to increase "the budget deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP in 2016 and to over 3 percent of GDP in 2017", compared to 2.6 percent in 2015, before a planned return to fiscal consolidation from 2018. Global ratings agency Moody's in August warned that an escalating constitutional crisis threatened to hurt investment and could affect Poland's credit rating. Moody's pointed to a probe launched by prosecutors against the Constitutional Court's chief justice and the refusal of Szydlo's government to recognise the top court's rulings. The constitutional "crisis already appears to have left its mark" Moody's said, noting that "real investment contracted by 2.2 percent" in the first quarter of 2016 compared to 2015. In January, Standard and Poor's cut its long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating for Poland by one notch to 'BBB+', citing PiS government moves "weakening institutions".