This week has so far seen positive news for Poland's business environment. Foreign investor sentiment has improved but at a slower rate than last year, while unemployment levels fell last month from 12.9 percent in March to 12.3 percent as a result of seasonal factors.

Data collected from regional employment offices shows that at the end of last month 1.97 million people were registered as unemployed, a decrease of 101,000 on March.

“Unemployment in Poland is cyclical, so this decline is not surprising, although its scale is much larger than in previous years,” Deputy Labor Minister Czesława Ostrowska told Gazeta Wyborcza.

Ms Ostrowska attributes the fall to workers taking up seasonal jobs in such sectors as agriculture, tourism and construction. “Next month the unemployment rate should stabilize or drop further,” she added.

Improving employment figures point to a strengthening economy. And indeed, foreign direct investors operating in emerging European markets are becoming increasingly optimistic in their outlooks for the region, according to the Thomson Reuters & OeKB Central and Eastern European Business Climate index.

Improved investor optimism was driven largely by a significant improvement in sentiment among real estate investors and transport firms. Nonetheless, the rate of improvement slowed for the second consecutive quarter and those operating in the banking and insurance markets were less optimistic than they were in the previous quarter.

Those polled were “significantly more happy with their current business situation than they were in January,” said Austrian export financing bank OeKB, which compiled the survey.

“But the new spirit of optimism that emerged among foreign investors in the second half of 2009 didn't fully hold in 2010,” it said. “The investors see the future optimistically, but show overall more caution.”

Ukraine was the only country where business mood remained negative and was even worse than three months earlier.