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Polish economy shrinks 1.2% in Q1 2021: flash estimate

14.05.2021 10:10
The Polish economy shrank 1.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, the country’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) said on Friday in a flash estimate.
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The figure was in line with a consensus forecast by economists polled by state news agency PAP.

Poland's gross domestic product contracted 2.7 percent in the final quarter of last year, according to the state-run statistics agency.

The Polish economy shrank 2.7 percent in 2020 as a whole, after posting 4.7 percent growth in 2019, the Central Statistical Office has previously reported.

The European Commission has said that Poland’s economy went into a recession last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the contraction was among the mildest in the EU.

The EU executive this month raised its growth forecast for Poland, predicting that the country's economy will expand by 4 percent in 2021 as a whole.

Poland’s central bank in March updated its GDP growth forecasts for the country, saying it expected the economy to expand 4.1 percent this year and 5.4 percent in 2022.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said earlier this year that Poland was among the European Union’s most financially stable economies, with a high level of fiscal stability and low risk in terms of public finances.

He also said that Poland has weathered the coronavirus storm in a better condition than some of Europe's wealthiest economies.

Morawiecki said in early February that, despite the coronavirus pandemic, Poland would not only avoid a recession this year, but enjoy a strong economic recovery, seeing its GDP grow by no less than 4 percent.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda in January signed the country’s budget for 2021, which expects the economy to grow 4 percent, with inflation targeted at 1.8 percent.

The Polish statistics office is expected to report full first-quarter data on May 31.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP