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Poland's industrial production in August grew at a pace of 0.5 percent, down from the 5.2 percent growth in July and slower than most analysts had predicted – the market consensus forecast had been 1.9 percent.

The weakening of output growth was “broad based and was visible both in sections dependent on domestic demand and export-oriented,” Piotr Bujak, chief economist for Poland at Nordea Bank, said in an e-mailed statement.

Economists said the figures were further confirmation that Poland's economy is experiencing a steep slowdown, as a number of recent macroeconomic figures have indicated. Poland's economic growth for the second quarter of this year came in at 2.4 percent, a sharp decrease from the 3.5 percent seen in the first quarter – despite an influx of tourists for the Euro 2012 tournament in Q2.

The Polish government revised its expectation for economic growth next year downward to 2.2 percent from a previous forecast of 2.9 percent, and now says that this year the budget deficit will come in at 3.5% of GDP instead of the earlier-predicted 2.9 percent.

The Central Statistical Office, which released the industrial production figures on Wednesday, also released construction output figures. Here, the news was somewhat better, with output contracting a mere 5 percent, rather than the 8 percent or so that analysts had expected. The sector had contracted by 8.8 percent in July.

A detailed breakdown of the construction data showed a rebound in infrastructure construction, Mr Bujak said, “but in our view this is [a] temporary effect connected with finishing some road works suspended due to Euro 2012.”

Poland A.M.