Poland achieves the fastest GDP growth in the EU
Poland achieved the highest annual and quarterly GDP growth in the EU during the second quarter of 2024, according to new data from Eurostat.
Poland's economy expanded by 4% year-on-year, surpassing Cyprus (3.7%) and Spain (2.9%). In contrast, five countries experienced economic contractions: Estonia (-1.7%), Ireland (-1.4%), Finland (-0.7%), Latvia (-0.4%), and the EU's largest economy, Germany (-0.1%). Overall, the EU's economy grew by 0.8%.
On a quarterly basis, Poland's GDP increased by 1.5%, compared to the EU's average of 0.3%, based on seasonally adjusted data from 22 of the bloc's 27 member states, as reported by Eurostat.
Meanwhile, Poland's state statistical office, GUS, announced that in unadjusted terms, Poland's GDP grew by an annual 3.2% in the second quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of 2.7% and significantly higher than the 2% recorded in the first quarter. Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed the news.
"Everyone was surprised by the growth of the Polish economy in the second quarter of this year," Tusk wrote on X. "We are outperforming all the major EU countries, and we far outpaced Germany."
Germany, Poland's largest trading partner, accounted for 27.9% of Polish exports and 19.8% of imports in 2023, according to WPN, citing the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).
However, analysts at PKO Bank urged caution, noting that Poland's quarterly data is highly volatile and often subject to revisions, making comparisons with other EU countries challenging.
"Nevertheless, the scale of the post-pandemic recovery in Poland remains one of the strongest in the entire EU," they added.
PKO Bank's calculations show that from the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, to the second quarter of 2024, Poland recorded the EU's fourth-highest GDP growth at 12.5%, trailing only Malta (18.8%), Croatia (17.4%), and Cyprus (15.6%).