Poland is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe which is confirmed by various market indicators such as Gross Domestic Product, Consumer Price Index, structure of the labour market, competitive wages, and dynamic foreign trade exchange.
With GDP growth of 6.2% for the first quarter of 2008, Poland is developing much faster than the Euro zone (2.1%) and higher than the average of all 27 EU members (2.3%).
According to a survey commissioned by PAIiIZ in 2007 the main reason for investors to enter Poland is creating special economic zones and obtaining funds from the European Union. Costs of conducting business in Poland are significantly lower than in Western Europe. Also the labour cost are very optimistic for foreign investors. The wage level in the Czech Republic and Hungary is now higher than in Poland. According to Cushman & Wakefield Cities Monitor, Warsaw is the best capital city in Europe in terms of cost of staff. Also, the time required to start up a company is much shorter than in other countries. According to the World Bank, estimated time required to start a business in Poland is 31 days, in Hungary it is 38 days and 40 days in Czech Republic.
Poland lies in the Central-Eastern Europe. Total surface area of Poland is 322,500 sq km. This makes Poland the ninth largest country in Europe. The Voivodeship of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) is exactly the size of Belgium. Poland's population fluctuates near 38,111,000. This makes Poland the 29th most populated country in the world and the 8th in Europe.
The major territorial division in Poland is voivodship (wojewodztwo). There are 16 voivodships in Poland. The primary urban and rural unit is municipality (gmina). Between the gmina and the voivodship ther is an intermediate unit - called district (powiat). The major Polish cities are Warsaw, Łódź, Cracow (Kraków), Wrocław (Breslau), Poznań (Pozen), Gdańsk (Danzig), Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, Toruń, Katowice and Lublin. The main geographical regions are Pomerania (Pomorze), Masuria (Mazury), Greater Poland (Wielkopolska), Mazovia (Mazowsze), Podlassia (Podlasie), Silesia (śląsk), Lesser Poland (Małopolska), and Sub-Carpathia (Podkarpacie).
General economic data (2007)
Taxes
Source: PAIiIZ, GUS, Eurostat