Polish exports are one of the key drivers of growth

- said Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin, Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology. 

Deputy Minister Robert Tomanek predicts:

We expect to accelerate our trade in goods in 2021, including the increase on the side of export, which shall lead to a further increase in our positive trade balance. We expect that the dynamics of exports of goods will be far better than the dynamics of the GDP.

COVID-19 has not stopped Polish exporters. Despite a truly large scale of disturbances in the global economy, they have been doing extremely good, sometimes even better than our trading partners.  At the same time, the largest EU exporters recorded much deeper falls, e.g. Germany – 9%, the Netherlands – 7%, France – 16%, Italy – 10%, Spain – 10%, Belgium – 8%.

Poland also strengthens its position in imports from Germany (our largest trading partner). According to data from the German Statistical Office DESTATIS, last year Poland overran France and increased its distance over Italy. Poland was the fourth supplier of goods to Germany in general and the second in Europe. Among the European countries, only the Netherlands exported more to Germany, while among the countries from outside Europe, only China and the USA. In December last year, according to our expectations, exports of goods increased at a two-digit rate of 10%, reaching 19.8 billion euros. This was the best result in 2020 and, at the same time, the fourth growth in a row. Import grew dynamically in December, i.e. by 7.1%, to 19.4 billion euros. 

Throughout the year, exports of goods from Poland amounted to 237.5 billion euros (-0.3% y/y), which, in view of the unprecedented turbulence in global trade which occurred in 2020, should be regarded as an exceptionally good result. In a large part, it is the result of the high competitiveness of our exports and of its structure. However, the rapid adaptation of our companies to the new conditions has also been possible as a result of, among others, the diversification of sales channels, as well as the quick and determined response from the government to the crisis. 

On the imports side, there was a decrease of 4.8% in 2020 to 225.5 billion euros. At the same time, this has translated into an unprecedented increase in trade balance surplus (+10.8 billion euros), to a historically record level of almost 12 billion euros.
In December last year, according to our expectations, exports of goods increased at a two-digit rate of 10%, reaching 19.8 billion euros. This was the best result in 2020 and, at the same time, the fourth growth in a row. Import grew dynamically in December, i.e. by 7.1%, to 19.4 billion euros.