WARSAW, Poland

Poland’s economy grew 4.3 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, a slight slowdown over previous quarters but still one of the strongest growth rates in Europe.

Economists, however, warned that Poland’s economy is starting to be battered by new troubles in the world economy, problems not visible yet in the figures for the April-June period that were released yesterday.

A loss of momentum is expected to be seen in third quarter figures, economists warned.

Poland’s strong growth is attributed in part to the EU subsidies and massive foreign investments it has received since joining the European Union in 2004. And as the largest of the new EU members, with a population of 38 million, it also has a large consumer market that powers the economy, leaving it less dependent than neighbours like Hungary on exports to keep growing.

Still, Poland trades extensively with neighbouring Germany and economists were eager to see if a recent slowdown there would take the edge off Poland’s strong growth.

Growth of 4.3 per cent, however, was better than the 4.2 per cent that many economists had expected. The previous two quarters saw growth of 4.5 per cent and 4.4 per cent.

Adam Antoniak, an economist with Bank BPH, said Poland will not be immune from the “increasingly distressing news regarding prospects for the world economy” and he expects the pace of growth in the third quarter to “decline markedly”.

Data released yesterday showed that growth in individual consumption slowed for the second quarter in a row while the growth rate of public consumption fell for the first time on record, Antoniak said.

Poland was the only European nation to avoid a recession during the global financial crisis, a fact the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk often boasts about — as he did in Brussels yesterday.

Holding up a small map of Poland overlaid with the 4.3 per cent figure, Tusk said he was happy to boast of the strong number. He credited the EU and his own Government for using EU funds well.

“One source of growth, not only in Poland, are the European funds, European aid put to good use,” the news agency PAP quoted him as saying.

Still, while Poland’s growth figures look impressive, the country is still much poorer than its Western European neighbours. Trains and roads remain dilapidated, and many people have been unable to make the transition from a communist to market economy 22 years ago, adding to a high unemployment rate of about 11 per cent.

With job prospects bleak and wages low, many Poles have left to work in Western Europe, especially Britain, in recent years.

AP

WARSAW, Poland — Shoppers visit a shopping mall in downtown Warsaw yesterday. (Photo: AP)