Poland continues to catch up with EU despite crisis

"Despite the crisis, Poland is still on the path of catching up with the European Union. The results show that the Polish labor market and the enterprise sector are in good shape, mainly due to the large share of non-returnable aid, which provides good foundations for returning the economy to the path of growth," Paweł Borys.head of Polish Development Fund (PFR) said.

"We are quite optimistic when it comes to the growth prospects for the next three years. It seems that the economy will really accelerate now, reaching a growth rate of over 5 percent with a rebound in investment at the turn of this and next year," the head of PFR added.

Borys informed that the coronavirus pandemic did not stop the trend of Poland catching up, which can be seen, among others in comparison to other EU countries, where a decrease in GDP in 2020, amounted to 2.8 percent. 

"At the end of 2020, according to our estimates, the distance measured in dollars decreased to less than $10,000 compared to the EU average, and a few years ago it amounted to $13,000," he noted.

As he emphasized, Poland has also exceeded in the last two years 50 percent of income and productivity levels relative to the United States, the technology leader.

Piotr Arak, the director of the Polish Economic Institute (PIE), presenting the country's economic situation for the last year, noted that we manage to maintain a low unemployment rate at the level of 6.2 percent. Arak pointed out that "the latest data show seasonal increases in unemployment in Poland, but elsewhere – in contrast to what happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the unemployment rate remains low, also thanks to what the state does ".

According to Arak, "even if this indicator becomes real in 2021, we will not get above 7 percent."

(PAP)