Aleksander Grad, Poland’s treasury minister, holds the fate of his country’s public finances and the fortunes of the ruling Civic Platform party in his hands as he embarks on Poland’s most ambitious privatisation programme in recent years.
The goal is to sell 37bn zlotys worth of state assets this year and next year, without which the level of public debt will almost certainly shoot past the 55 per cent of gross domestic product barrier in 2010 that triggers draconian cuts in the budget for 2011.
