General view of a destroyed house in the aftermath of Biala Ladecka river flooding in Trzebieszowice, Poland, September 20, 2024. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's 2025 draft budget will set aside 3.2 billion zlotys ($835.88 million) as a reserve for dealing with natural disasters, the finance minister said on Saturday, after devastating floods wreaked havoc in the country.
The worst floods in at least two decades left many towns in southwestern Poland submerged, and the government has said it will free up a total of 23 billion zlotys from the budget and European Union funds to deal with the aftermath.
The deluge has also compounded the financial worries of a government facing the prospect of EU budget discipline measures.
"We are increasing the funds for the reserve for counteracting natural disasters to 3.191 billion zlotys, and this reserve may increase," Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told a government meeting.
He also said that the government would transfer 738 million zlotys from the general subsidy reserve to local authorities affected by the floods.
He said that no decision had yet been made on whether changes to the 2024 budget would be necessary, but reiterated that the floods made it more likely.
The government is due to adopt the draft 2025 budget at a further session on Saturday that will be closed to the media.
In August it announced that according to the assumptions of the 2025 budget, the general government deficit would rise to 5.5% of GDP. This would arise from increased defence spending and the dropping of some practices of the former administration that critics said kept costs off the books.
($1 = 3.8283 zlotys)
(Reporting by Alan Charlish; editing by Mark Heinrich)
