Poland's GDP growth projection second highest in EU

WARSAW -- Poland's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow 4.2 percent in 2019 and by 3.6 percent in 2020, the European Commission said on Tuesday when it published its spring macroeconomic forecasts for the European Union.

While this means a slowdown for the Polish economy after a 5.1 percent GDP growth rate in 2018, the country will remain one of the best performers in the EU, the forecast showed, with only Malta doing better in 2019.

"Private consumption is set to remain the key growth driver in 2019 and 2020, supported by a robust increase in wages. An increase in social transfers will act as additional stimulus until around mid-2020," the Commission wrote in its analysis.

On the whole, GDP is forecast to grow by 1.4 percent in the EU this year and by 1.2 percent in the eurozone.

"The European Commission raised its forecast for Poland's GDP growth to 4.2 percent in 2019, lowering its predictions for the eurozone. This means that our GDP will grow three times faster than the EU average and that we will be the second most dynamically developing economy in the union," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Twitter in response to the forecast.

The European Commission also said Poland's fiscal deficit was expected to increase to 1.6 percent of GDP in 2019 and then slightly fall to 1.4 percent in 2020.