Poland President Andrzej Duda joins the Mary ‘mornings’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the effect that Trump’s presidency will have on the global economy.
Nothing seems to take the path of Poland by going from strength to strength despite being part of the slow European Union. There are many reasons why many aspects, including the extraordinary expenses of the country’s defense and its conservative approach Donald Trump for illegal immigration.
At the end of last month, Poland’s economy was estimated to have increased by 2.9% last year, according to the country’s status. This performance violates the only European currency area, also known as the Eurozone, with more than three times; It issued a only 0.7% for the same period.
Poland’s growth also overcome the US, which increased by a strong 2.5% to 12 months to December.
“Last year or two have seen a boom, and is getting publicity,” says Mateusz Urban, an old economist at Oxford Economy in Warsaw, Poland, for Fox Business. “There is really a European tiger right in the door of Germany.”
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Customers walk near a shopping center in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, July 4, 2024. (Dominika Zarzycka / Nurphoto through Getty Images / Getty Images)
This is not a single event. By 2024, Poland’s economy had grown to 11 times larger than in 1986. This significantly exceeds the US, which increased its economy to be six times larger for the same period, according to data from the trading economy.
Urban says a large part of Poland’s rapid growth involves unlocking human capital after the fall of the Soviet Union. During the many decades of the USSR rule, the government devoted a lot of effort to educate people in mathematics, science and engineering, and the continued influence of those universities and schools is still highly valued.
“These kinds of institutions have a long legacy,” Urban said. “After 1989, Poland inherited a very well -organized system that managed to produce a good number of specialists in mechanical engineering and information technology.”
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This focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics helped the country build an impressive technology sector estimated at $ 32 billion, or 4.5% of the economy this year, according
Polish workers are also “many workers, with high standards and cheaper to be employed than people in the UK,” said Elias Haddad, a high -market strategist in Brown Brothers Harriman in London, for Fox Business.
Another factor that Poland is benefiting is the appointment of EU veteran Donald Tusk as prime minister in December 2023. Before him, the Polish Party and Justice, led by Mateusz Jakub Morawiecki, was sanctioned by the European Commission [EC] Due to the belief that Poland’s judiciary was not independent of the government.
“The party was not respecting some of the EU rules,” Haddad says.
The national white and red flag of Poland and the European Union flag in Brandenburg. (Patrick Pleul / Picture Alliance through Getty Images / Getty Images)
The result was EC kept EU funds intended to help Poland. But now with tusk tightly in the hot place, EU money should all be released, giving the economy another incentive.
As the country is growing fast, it is also on the front line of NATO, the military alliance founded after World War II, on the border with Ukraine. The country is expected to spend 4.7% of its GDP on defense this year, which is a higher percentage than any other NATO member, and this led the road to 2024.
“We are aware that Germany will not be able to save Poland,” Urban says. “That is why the government is postponing costs into about 5% of GDP.”
For decades, Germany failed to achieve its NATO commitment to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense, according to the World Bank. In 2024, it reached 2.1%.
While Poland responded positively to the Ukraine-Russian war during that time, it has also received a load of more than 7 million refugees from Ukraine.
“Since the war, we have become an attractive place for immigration and refugees,” said Marcin Klucznik, a senior adviser to the world economy team at the Polish Economic Institute for Fox Business.
A man wears a “Make Great Poland again” cap as he participates in Mars of Independence celebrating Poland’s 106th anniversary by regaining independence in Warsaw, Poland 11 November 2024. (Beata Zawrzel / Nurphoto through Getty Images / Getty Images)
However, this massive influx has led to discussions about who Poland wants to attract to its place, says Klucznik. Last month Rafał Trzaskowski, a candidate for Poland’s presidency, demanded that the government ban payment of so -called subsidies for children’s benefits to Ukrainians with children, but are not officially working. He stated that only those who work and pay their taxes should receive state assistance.
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Klucznik said the country is conservative and careful with its immigration policy.
“We are aware of some of the mistakes made by other European countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, and we want to avoid some of them,” he said.
In particular, those three large countries have failed to get many migrants to fully integrate into local culture.