Home Europe EconomyPoland Economy Poland Economy

Poland Economy

By: EconomyWatch Content Date: 30 March 2010

About The Author

Follow The Money

Poland is located in Central Europe and it borders the Baltic Sea, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Lithuania. With a total area spanning 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq m), Poland is the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe.

Poland is the only country in the European Union (EU) to have registered 1.2% economic growth in 2009. The country’s GDP per head rose from 50% to 56% of the EU average in 2009, making it a record jump.

Today, Poland is Europe’s sixth-biggest economy and is considered to have one of the fastest growing economies in Central Europe, with an annual growth rate of more than 6.0% before the 2008 recession.

Poland Economy: Polish Economic Profile

Since the fall of the communist government in 1989, Poland has been consistently liberalizing its economy and has successfully completed the transition from a centrally planned economy to a primarily capitalistic market economy.

The country’s GDP (purchasing power parity):

$646.4 billion (2007)
$678.8 billion (2008 est.)
$686.2 billion (2009 est.)

The following data maps the performance of various sectors in the GDP as of 2009:

Agriculture: 4.6%
Industry: 28.1%
Services: 67.3%

Of the estimated 38 millionpeople, the Polish labor force stood at 16.99 million as of 2009 and occupied three main sectors in the following manner as of 2005:

Agriculture: 17.4%
Industry: 29.2%
Services: 53.4%

Poland’s currency is zlotych (PLN), and its exchange rate in relationship to the US dollar stood at:

2009 - 3.1
2008 - 2.3
2007 - 2.81
2006 - 3.1032

Commodities that Poland has been producing include:

Electronics
Cars (including the luxurious Leopard car)
Buses (Autosan, Jelcz SA, Solaris, Solbus)
Helicopters (PZL Świdnik)
Transport equipment
Locomotives
Planes (PZL Mielec)
Ships
Military
Engineering (including tanks, SPAAG systems)
Medicines (Polpharma, Polfa)
Food
Clothes
Glass
Pottery (Bolesławiec)
Chemical products

With Poland undergoing economic development, the country continues to face several challenges ahead. The most notable among them is the preparation of the economy to meet the strict economic criteria for entry into the Eurozone.