Among the poorest in Europe
Poland, together with Lithuania, is the second-poorest country among EU members. Gross Domestic Product per capita expressed in purchasing power standards amounted to just 46 percent of the EU average last year.
Bottom of the European pile is Latvia, whose GDP is 41 percent of the EU average. According to statistics published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the Euro-pean Communities, Cyprus, Slovenia and Malta are the richest newcomers in the EU, with GDP rates of 83, 77 and 75 percent, respectively.
Luxembourg tops the list, with GDP per capita more than twice the EU average.
Despite this, Finance Minister, Miroslaw Gronicki, says that Poland should fulfill the criteria for entry to the euro zone within two years, as long as decent economic growth continues, inflation falls below 2.5 percent in 2005 and the public debt decreases this year.
GDP growth in Poland in the first quarter of 2004 was 6.9 percent and 6.1 percent in the second. Data on the third quarter, published last Wednesday by the Polish Central Statistics Office (GUS), shows that this has fallen to 4.8 percent.
Bottom of the European pile is Latvia, whose GDP is 41 percent of the EU average. According to statistics published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the Euro-pean Communities, Cyprus, Slovenia and Malta are the richest newcomers in the EU, with GDP rates of 83, 77 and 75 percent, respectively.
Luxembourg tops the list, with GDP per capita more than twice the EU average.
Despite this, Finance Minister, Miroslaw Gronicki, says that Poland should fulfill the criteria for entry to the euro zone within two years, as long as decent economic growth continues, inflation falls below 2.5 percent in 2005 and the public debt decreases this year.
GDP growth in Poland in the first quarter of 2004 was 6.9 percent and 6.1 percent in the second. Data on the third quarter, published last Wednesday by the Polish Central Statistics Office (GUS), shows that this has fallen to 4.8 percent.
