Poland will not, as reported in Friday's Rzeczpospolita, look to privatize more of its shares of bank PKO BP and insurer PZU next year, the spokesperson for Poland's Treasury Ministry, Maciej Wewiór, has said. 

The Rzeczpospolita report cited an anonymous source as saying that the government would look to more than triple its privatization goal for next year – currently zł.7 billion – to zł.25 billion, with the sales of the stakes in the huge state-controlled firms as the main drivers.

However, Mr Wewiór has thrown cold water on the report.

“The privatization plan for next year is zł.7 billion, not zł.25 billion,” Mr Wewiór told Reuters.

The government wants to close its budget deficit gap over the next few years largely through privatization revenues, but those might not be enough, and it has mooted a possible VAT hike to cover costs.

The government is already halfway to its 2010 goal of zł.25 billion from privatizations, after the sales of stakes in energy producers PGE and Tauron, among others.