Poland's GDP growth reaches 5.9 pct in 2021 even though Poles consider the economy poor

Poland’s economy expanded by 5.9 percent year on year in 2021, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) said on Friday.

Economists polled by PAP expected Poland’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to have increased by 5.7 percent year on year in 2021.

In 2020, the country’s GDP shrank by 2.2 percent, against an earlier estimate of 2.5 percent, GUS added. 

Poles are discontent with the economy

The majority of Poles believe the country’s economy is in a bad condition, according to the results of a new survey published on Friday.

The Kantar poll found that in the first half of April, 67 percent of respondents described the condition of Poland’s economy as poor while 25 percent voiced the opposite opinion. 

Only 8 percent were undecided. 

The percentage of Poles who believe the condition of the economy was bad fell by 3 percentage points from March, while the proportion of those polled who believed the economy was developing, grew by 1 percentage point month on month.

In turn, 63 percent were unhappy with the direction the country was heading, while 19 percent were satisfied. 

According to 59 percent, it is easy to find a job in Poland, while 28 percent said it was quite difficult to find a job, and 13 percent did not have an opinion. 

Kantar ran the survey on April 8-13 on a random sample of 1,008 adult Poles, using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) method.