Information about economy of poland?

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Information about economy of poland?

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Economy - overview: Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of economic liberalization since 1990 and today stands out as a success story among transition economies. In 2006, GDP grew 5.3%, based on rising private consumption, a 16.7% jump in investment, and burgeoning exports. Poland today has a thriving private sector which created more than 300,000 new jobs during 2006 alone. GDP per capita roughly equals that of the three Baltic states. Consumer price inflation - at 1.3% in 2006 - remains among the lowest in the EU. Since 2004, EU membership and access to EU structural funds has provided a major boost to the economy. Inflows of direct foreign investment exceeded $10 billion in 2006 alone - and more than $100 billion since 1990 - with major investments being announced by foreign firms in computer, consumer electronics, and automobile component production. In early 2006, Poland reached agreement with its EU partners that will permit it to benefit from EU funds totaling nearly $80 billion during 2007-13. Since 2002, even though the zloty appreciated 30%, Poland's exports more than doubled. Despite Poland's successes, more remains to be done. Unemployment, which stood at 15% in December 2006, is still the highest in the EU. An inefficient commercial court system, a rigid labor code, bureaucratic red tape, and persistent corruption keep the private sector from performing to its potential. Agriculture is handicapped by inefficient small farms and inadequate investment. Restructuring and privatization of the remaining state-owned industries, especially "sensitive sectors" such as coal, oil refining, railroads, and energy transmission and generation, have stalled due to concerns about loss of control over critical national assets and lay-offs. Reforms in health care, education, the pension system, and state administration have failed so far to reduce the government budget deficit, which was roughly 2.7 percent of GDP in 2006. Further progress in public finance depends mainly on reducing losses in Polish state enterprises, restraining entitlements, and overhauling the tax code. The previous Socialist-led government introduced a package of social and administrative spending cuts to reduce public spending by about $17 billion through 2007, but full implementation of the plan was trumped by election-year politics in 2005. The right-wing Law and Justice party won parliamentary elections in September 2005, and Lech KACZYNSKI won the presidential election in October, running on a state-interventionist fiscal and monetary platform. The new government has proceeded cautiously on economic matters, however, retaining, for example, the corporate income tax cuts initiated by the previous administration and indicating its intention to reduce the top personal income tax rate.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $542.6 billion (2006 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): $337 billion (2006 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 5.3% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP): $14,100 (2006 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 4.8%
industry: 31.2%
services: 64% (2006 est.)
Labor force: 17.26 million (2006 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 16.1%
industry: 29%
services: 54.9% (2002)
Unemployment rate: 14.9% (November 2006 est.)
Population below poverty line: 17% (2003 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 3.1%
highest 10%: 26.7% (2002)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 34.1 (2002)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.3% (2006 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 19.2% of GDP (2006 est.)
Budget: revenues: $62 billion
expenditures: $71.25 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.)
Public debt: 49% of GDP (2006 est.)
Agriculture - products: potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat; poultry, eggs, pork, dairy
Industries: machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles
Industrial production growth rate: 10.2% (2006 est.)
Electricity - production: 143.5 billion kWh (2004)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 98.1%
hydro: 1.5%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0.4% (2001)
Electricity - consumption: 124.1 billion kWh (2004)
Electricity - exports: 14.6 billion kWh (2004)
Electricity - imports: 5.3 billion kWh (2004)
Oil - production: 35,880 bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - consumption: 445,700 bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - exports: 53,000 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - imports: 413,700 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - proved reserves: 142.4 million bbl (December 2004)
Natural gas - production: 5.957 billion cu m (2004)
Natural gas - consumption: 15.67 billion cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - exports: 46 million cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 9.963 billion cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 164.8 billion cu m (1 January 2005 est.)
Current account balance: $-4.548 billion (2006 est.)
Exports: $110.7 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
Exports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment 37.8%, intermediate manufactured goods 23.7%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1%, food and live animals 7.6% (2003)
Exports - partners: Germany 28.2%, France 6.2%, Italy 6.1%, UK 5.6%, Czech Republic 4.6%, Russia 4.4%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)
Imports: $113.2 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment 38%, intermediate manufactured goods 21%, chemicals 14.8%, minerals, fuels, lubricants, and related materials 9.1% (2003)
Imports - partners: Germany 29.6%, Russia 8.7%, Italy 6.6%, Netherlands 5.9%, France 5.7% (2005)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $49.69 billion (2006 est.)
Debt - external: $147.3 billion (30 June 2006 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $13.9 billion in available EU structural adjustment and cohesion funds (2004-06)
Currency (code): zloty (PLN)
Currency code: PLN
Exchange rates: zlotych per US dollar - 3.1032 (2006), 3.2355 (2005), 3.6576 (2004), 3.8891 (2003), 4.08 (2002), note, zlotych is the plural form of zloty
Fiscal year: calendar year Source(s): https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/fac...
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Since the fall of communism, Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of liberalising the economy and today stands out as a successful example of the transition from a state-directed economy to a primarily privately owned market economy.

The privatisation of small and medium state-owned companies and a liberal law on establishing new firms have allowed the development of an aggressive private sector. As a consequence, consumer rights organisations have also appeared. Restructuring and privatisation of "sensitive sectors" such as coal, steel, railways, and energy has been continuing since 1990. Between 2007 and 2010, the government plans to float twenty public companies on the Polish stock market, including parts of the coal industry. To date (2007), the biggest privatisations have been the sale of the national telecoms firm Telekomunikacja Polska to France Telecom in 2000, and an issue of 30% of the shares in Poland's largest bank, PKO Bank Polski, on the Polish stockmarket in 2004.

Poland has a large number of private farms in its agricultural sector, with the potential to become a leading producer of food in the European Union. However, problems remain, especially under-investment. Structural reforms in health care, education, the pension system, and state administration have resulted in larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment[citation needed] and needs a continued large inflow. GDP growth had been strong and steady from 1993 to 2000 with only a short slowdown from 2001 to 2002. The prospect of closer integration with the European Union has put the economy back on track, with growth of 3.7% annually in 2003, a rise from 1.4% annually in 2002. In 2004, GDP growth equaled 5.4%, in 2005 3.3% and in 2006 5.8%. For 2007, the government has set a target for GDP growth at 6.5 to 7.0%.

The long standing head of the National Bank of Poland, Leszek Balcerowicz, was replaced by S艂awomir Skrzypek in January 2007. At first the markets reacted sceptically and fell, but since then have stabilized and then risen sharply.

Although the Polish economy is currently undergoing economic development, there are many challenges ahead. The most notable task on the horizon is the preparation of the economy (through continuing deep structural reforms) to allow Poland to meet the strict economic criteria for entry into the European Single Currency (Euro). There is much speculation as to just when Poland might be allowed to join the Eurozone, although the best guess estimates put the entry date somewhere between 2009 and 2013[citation needed]. For now, Poland is preparing to make the Euro its official currency (though it has not joined the ERM yet), and the Z艂oty may eventually be replaced by Euro in the Polish economy.

Since joining the European Union, many young Polish people have left their country to work in other EU countries (particularly Ireland and the UK) because of high unemployment, which is the highest in the EU (12.8% in December 2006).[4]

Products Poland produces include clothes, glass, china (Mikasa, Waterford), electronics, cars (such as luxury Leopard car), buses (Autosan, Jelcz SA, Solaris, Solbus), helicopters (PZL 艢widnik), transport equipment, locomotives, planes (PZL Mielec), ships, military engineering (including tanks, SPAAG systems), medicines (Polpharma, Polfa), food, chemical products and others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/poland...
Your best primary resource is Poland's own national portal. Check out this link for more in-depth information on its economy:
http://www.poland.pl/directory/index,bus...

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