In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the International Monetary Fund predicts that Poland’s economy will grow by 2.4 percent in 2012, but will slow down to 2.1 percent in 2013. This would put Poland in seventh place when it comes to the fastest-growing economies in the EU. The IMF’s forecast for Poland is slightly higher than the government’s expectations, which are for 2.2 GDP growth this year.

Estonia and Latvia are expected to grow the fastest next year at 3.5 percent each, while Lithuania is forecast to grow at 3 percent.

Source: IMF

The IMF predicts the global economy will expand by 3.3 percent this year (as opposed to the 3.5 percent it predicted earlier), while 2013 growth is forecast at 3.6 percent. It also now sees “alarmingly high” risks of a steeper slowdown.

“A key issue is whether the global economy is just hitting another bout of turbulence in what was always expected to be a slow and bumpy recovery or whether the current slowdown has a more lasting component,” the IMF said in the report.

“The answer depends on whether European and U.S. policy makers deal proactively with their major short-term economic challenges,” it added.