While Germany is facing a recession the Polish economy helps its biggest trading partner to avoid an even deeper economic downturn. Poland has become the fourth largest recipient of the German sales market, overtaking China. German experts hope that the demand for German products in the Polish market will help the entire EU economy prevail in the time of economic crisis. 

According to Cathrina Class-Mühlhäuser, a chairwoman of the Eastern Commission of the German Economy, Poland maintains its position as Germany’s fourth most important sales market ahead of China. It has thus helped the German suppliers to overcome the demand bottlenecks.

Poland stands at the fourth position with the US, France and the Netherlands making the top three trade areas for German products. 

The ‘FAZ’ reports that in Germany one could see “clearly a deep gap in the perception of the neighbouring country among the population on the one hand and among businesses on the other”. 

The newspaper quotes the results of last year’s studies, called the Polish-German Barometer, which shows that for most Germans, Poland remains at best a tourist destination. 

“A significant ratio of Germans have no opinion at all on many issues concerning their eastern neighbour. This was evident in as many as 27 per cent of the responses. Is Poland an unknown neighbour to the east?” the newspaper asks in its article. 

FAZ also reports that analysts agree that strong domestic demand has revived the Polish economy in 2024 and will most probably continue to help.

‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ points out that Germany “will still be able to count on the Polish locomotive to keep the EU’s economic train rolling”. 

The trade turnout between Poland and Germany recently grew to €159.4 billion.

According to the newspaper, however, the Polish economy also has weaknesses. These include the high budget deficit, as well as the lack of long-awaited interest rate cuts.

According to the Chamber of Foreign Trade, the weaknesses of the Polish economy also include bureaucracy, difficult-to-predict legislation and complicated tax law.

Source: DW Polski, WNP.pl

Photo:@as_arek

Tomasz Modrzejewski