Polish companies exported goods worth nearly zł.540 billion and brought in imports worth zł.588 billion between January and November 2012, the Central Statistical Office reported. According to the report, exports and imports increased by 8.1 percent and 3.2 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The result was a decrease in Poland’s trade deficit to zł.34 billion, from zł.58 billion in the same period of 2011.
“Polish foreign trade will continue to increase in 2013, however at the beginning of the year Polish imports will fall because of less demand,” Piotr Bujak, chief economist for Poland at Nordea Bank, told WBJ. However, “Polish exports will grow,” he added.

Grzegorz Maliszewski, chief economist at Millennium Bank, agreed that Polish imports will decrease in the first half of 2013. “Imports decreased at the end of 2012 and the trend will continue in the first months of 2013,” he told WBJ.

Poland’s largest trade partner, Germany, accounted for 25.3 percent of Polish imports, and 21.3 percent of Polish exports, drops of 0.9 percentage points and 1.1 percentage points respectively.

Marta Mardosz