Poland’s finance ministry announced on Tuesday that it expects the economy to grow by 4 per cent this year which is faster than 3.8 per cent growth assumed for the 2019 budget, approved by parliament earlier this year.
The ministry forecast slower GDP growth for the following years: 3.7 per cent in 2020, 3.4 per cent in 2021 and 3.3 per cent in 2022. Private consumption and a strong labour market would remain the key drivers of growth.
In its latest World Economic Outlook report, publish earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that the Polish economy would grow by 3.8 per cent this year which, according to the IMF, would be the highest in the region. The World bank has said that it expects growth to slow to 4 per cent this year from 5 per cent in 2018.
This is borne out by data from the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) which announced on Wednesday that averages salaries in Poland rose 5.7 in March compared with March 2018. The average gross monthly salary in March was PLN 5,164.53 (USD 1,368) according to GUS.
Employment in firms with more than nine employees, in respect of which the records are kept, increased by 3 per cent in March compared with the same month a year earlier.
Despite the increase, the cost of a worker in Poland is approximately a third of the EU average according to Eurostat. The average EU hourly labour costs were estimated at EUR 27.40 in 2018 compared with EUR10.10 for Poland. The labour costs calculated by Eurostat include wages, and other expenditure such as training fees and social insurance contributions. They exclude the agriculture and public administration sectors.