Assessment and recommendations

Despite a severe slowdown, Poland was less affected by the global recession than other OECD countries, especially in Eastern Europe. Indeed, it is expected to have recorded the best real growth outcome in the OECD in 2009 (at 1.7%), before recovering steadily towards 3% growth in 2011. Resilient final demand and the solidity of the financial system helped to contain the contagion of the economic crisis, which hit some other countries in the region so harshly. At the outset the economy had been suffering from significant excess demand, which has been eliminated by the slowdown, but external imbalances were not so large as to threaten stability.