“Poland’s economic growth rate is projected to reach 4.3% in 2019, driven primarily by expanding domestic consumption and a rebound in investment,” the bank said on Wednesday.
In April, the World Bank said it expected Polish economic growth to slow to 4 percent this year from over 5 percent in 2018.
According to the World Bank’s latest Economic Update for Europe and Central Asia, released on Wednesday, the Polish economy is forecast to slow down in subsequent years as growth in the European Union weakens and Poland increasingly suffers from the effects of labour shortages.
The bank maintained its forecast for Polish 2020 GDP expansion at 3.6 percent, followed by 3.3 percent in 2021.
Carlos Piñerúa, World Bank Country Manager for Poland and the Baltic States, said: “Household consumption, fueled by expected increases in budgetary expenditures and a tight labor market and rising wages, will continue to grow in Poland.
“This, together with continuing low interest rates and the execution of European funds-related investments will help sustain Poland's economic growth prospects in the near term."
He added that the two biggest challenges Poland’s economy is facing in the medium term are a “shortage of workers resulting from demographic trends” and a “rising fiscal burden of the implementation of a range of expansionary policies, which will be difficult to reverse for political reasons.”
Poland’s central bank chief, Adam Glapiński, said this month that the Polish economy was in "excellent" shape and on track to grow 4.3 percent in 2019.
Poland’s largest bank, PKO BP, in August forecast that the Polish economy would grow 4.6 percent this year, exceeding many predictions.
The Polish economy grew 4.5 percent in the second quarter of this year, the country’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) said in August in a final estimate.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP, worldbank.org