In the first months of the pandemic-related restrictions, the digital economy in Poland grew by 18.4 percent, i.e. 2.5 times faster than the average growth in 2017-2019, McKinsey analysts noted.

According to the report 'Digital Challengers in the next normal. Central and Eastern Europe on a path to digitally-led growth 'in 2017-2019, the digital economy in Poland grew by 7.2 percent, reaching the value of €32.7 billion (i.e. approximately PLN 144 billion) in 2019. In turn, in the period from January to May 2020, the development of the digital economy accelerated sharply and was 2.5 times higher than in the previous two years, reaching 18.4 percent.

Due to the potential for the development of this branch of the economy, the report includes Poland in the group of Digital Challengers. Apart from Poland, this group includes: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.

As it noted, in the Central and Eastern Europe region in 2017-2019, the digital economy grew at the level of almost 8 percent annually, reaching €94 billion in 2019. This is €2 billion more than in the baseline scenario assumed by the authors of the report, and Poland was responsible for a quarter of this surplus. The first five months of 2020 saw the region's digital economy grow by over 14 percent, representing 78 percent (or €5.3 billion) of growth recorded for the full year 2019.

(PAP)