Poland has a stable economy with a well-established macroeconomic position. Unique conditions for starting and running a business are reinforced by well-proven resilience to economic crises.
The attractiveness of Poland as an economic partner is due to a number of factors, such as:
- Ambitious and hardworking population. The greatest asset of Poland are its people. In particular their ambition, strong motivation for learning and high work ethic, loyalty and extraordinary resourcefulness.
This is demonstrated by i.a. the indicator of entrepreneurial intentions – 20% of adult Poles currently taking no action to start up a business plan to start up a business within 3 years (the average for the European Union is 13.0 %).
The above-average resourcefulness of Poles is also proven by the percentage of persons starting up or running early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA). In Poland it amounts to 9.2% of the adult population, while in the EU to 7.8%.
Compared to the European Union, Poles also assess their entrepreneurial capabilities better with 56% of adult Poles on average perceiving them positively, while the indicator for the EU stands at 43%.
Source: S. Singer, J.E. Amoros, D. Moska, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2015/16 Global Report, 2016. - Diversification of the economy. Diversification of production, service and agricultural enterprises. There is no problem in finding commercial partners in such sectors as automotive industry, aircraft manufacturing, IT, food processing, electronics or finance.
In Poland, there are 1.91 million companies, out of which 99.8% are SMEs. The majority of them provide services (970,800, i.e. 50.7% of companies). The second most popular sector is trade (499,400, i.e. 26.2% of companies), followed by construction (244,100, 26.1%) and industry (199,800, 10.4% of enterprises).
Source: Own calculations of PARP based on CSO’s publication Activity of non-financial enterprises in 2015, Central Statistical Office 2016 (sections B-J, L-N, P-S PKD 2007). - Macroeconomic stability. Healthy public finances, as well as economic stability and predictability, which enable long-term planning of economic cooperation. Poland, as the only country in Europe, managed to avoid the crisis and its public finances are much stronger than the EU average.
High quality of goods and services offered. Flexibility of entrepreneurs in meeting even the strictest quality and sectoral standards. - Infrastructural investments. Business opportunities are created by modernisation of infrastructure, including road and railway transport infrastructure, as well as energy infrastructure, on a unique scale in Europe.
- A large internal market and access to the European market. Poland is the largest country in Central and Eastern Europe and the 6th largest country in Europe as a whole. It comprises almost 39 million consumers in Poland and an easy access to the European Union market with 500 million consumers, as well as to the markets of Eastern Europe countries.
Poland’s attractiveness for investment is best demonstrated by data on investments:
- EUR 159 billion – value of foreign direct investment stock at the end of 2014 (NBP).
- The EY’s report European Attractiveness Survey 2016 found Poland to be the 5th most attractive FDI destination (15% of responses) in Europe (the first in the CEE). Poland was outdone only by Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands.
Economic data (Central Statistical Office, as at the end of 2015)
- GDP per capita – 68% of the EU average
- GDP value – USD 474.8 billion (current prices)
- GDP economic growth 3.6%
- Annual inflation -0.9%
- Exports – USD 190.7 billion
- Public debt/GDP 51.3% (at the end of the year)
- Public debt/GDP 9.8% (at the end of the year)