Last year, Poland became richer than the second country in Western Europe after Greece, said the IMF. The message is symbolic, as Rzeczpospolita daily pointed out, but it also means the beginning of a long-lasting trend. The income per capita, taking into account the real purchasing power of national currencies, amounted to $33,891 in Poland in 2019, slightly more than in Portugal ($33,665). However, the Fund predicts that this year the Portuguese economy will grow at a rate of 1.6 percent against 3.1 percent in the case of the Polish economy.

Antonio Costa's leftist government is praised for taking the country straight. Portugal went through a severe financial crisis in 2010-14 and barely avoided bankruptcy. Today its economy is steadily rising. After all, after breaking the crisis, Portugal has never managed to return to a really fast pace of growth.

However, according to Rzeczpospolita daily, the phenomenon is wider. It shows that Central Europe is increasingly chasing the southern countries of the EU. In 2019, Portugal, but also Poland, was overtaken by Hungary. On the other hand, the Czech Republic ($38,800) came very close to the level of Italy ($40,400). The authorities in Rome have not been able to overcome economic stagnation for four decades while the Czech economy is developing quite rapidly. However, a greater challenge will be for the countries of our region to reach the level of Spain ($41,600), which has become richer than Italy last year.

(Rzeczpospolita)