Mateusz Szczurek ‘best Europe 2015 finance minister’

Poland’s finance minister Mateusz Szczurek has been named ‘Finance Minister of the Year 2015, Europe’ by The Banker, a London-based financial monthly owned by The Financial Times.

Szczurek, who has been finance minister since November 2013, has already received praise on the international stage, being named ‘Finance Minister of the Year Central & Eastern Europe’ at the end of 2014.

The Banker pointed to Poland’s continuous high GDP growth as justification for the award. It commented, “[Poland’s] economy may be the poster child for the central and Eastern Europe region – but western European countries could also learn a lot from Poland’s success.”
The paper also noted that Poland’s public budget deficit has been falling under Szczurek, reaching 3.3 percent of GDP in 2014, and is expected to fall beneath the EU target of 3 percent over the course of this year.

In addition Szczurek has been active in reforming the Polish tax system and its administration. Since taking office he has cracked down on fiscal crimes while also attempting to simplify procedures for filling in tax returns.

Jacek Rostowski, the former finance minister who was replaced by Szczurek, congratulated him on Twitter for the award. Rostowski himself has been previously named “European minister of Finance” by The Banker.