Trade with Germany moves into the black thanks to economic slowdown

Poland recorded a trade surplus of $324.5 million last year with Germany, the Economy Ministry reported yesterday. This is Poland's first surplus with its biggest trade partner since 1995, and it represents a huge improvement from the $658.2 million deficit recorded in 2000. In total bilateral trade was worth $24.443 billion, with Polish exports to Germany valued at $12.384 billion, and imports at $12.059 billion. "The slowdown of the Polish economy and the fall in demand affected the level of investment very quickly and later also influenced procurement imports," commented head of the Institute for Foreign Trade Prices and Business Outlook (IKCHZ), Krzysztof Marczewski. "Meanwhile, 80% of imports from Germany are either investment imports or procurement imports," he added. According to analysts, the stagnation of imports and the moderate rise in Polish exports to Germany are likely to continue for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, figures released by Eurostat show that Poland remained the European Union (EU)'s seventh biggest trade partner last year, after exports to the EU rose 14% to euro 26.5 billion and imports increased just 5% to euro 35.5 billion. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) M.K.