Strong growth in the East
Why Poland’s economy is booming
While Germany’s economy is stagnating, Poland’s economy is growing by around three percent a year. What is the secret of the neighboring country’s success? A site visit to two companies.
Grzegorz Ciwoniuk looks like you would imagine a start-up founder to be. He wears a black hoodie with his company’s lettering on the chest – “WorkAI”. The company from Białystok in eastern Poland helps other companies digitize their office processes using artificial intelligence (AI).
Economic growth in Poland
Digitalization and “Entrepreneur Gene”
Around 40 employees now work for Ciwoniuk. Digitalization in Poland helped him found his company nine years ago, he says. “Even back then, it was basically completely online. Today, setting up a company is even easier – within five minutes,” says Ciwoniuk. “You can start a business with minimal start-up capital.” The state also supports young companies with tax advantages.
Grzegorz Ciwoniuk in the office of his company WorkAI.
Ciwoniuk sees the Polish mentality as another success factor. The Poles, he says, have an “entrepreneurial gene” within them. “I think we are not afraid of risks, not afraid of defeats. We learn from defeats,” says the entrepreneur.
In fact, Poland has one of the highest self-employment rates in the EU, although this is also viewed critically in the country. The majority of these self-employed people do not employ any employees, but benefit from lower taxes and social contributions.
The desire to rise as a motivation
For decades, Poles lived in a socialist economic system that was imposed on them by the Soviet Union. Entrepreneurial activity was suppressed and one’s own efforts were hardly rewarded. Things have changed since the transformation to a market economy.
Christopher Fuß observes how the Polish people’s desire for advancement drives economic development. He heads the Warsaw office of Germany Trade & Invest, the federal foreign trade agency. “In Germany I often hear the sentence: I want to secure my prosperity, I want to preserve my prosperity,” says Fuß. “We don’t have that here in Poland. Here we want to achieve more, here we want to move up. We can copy this hunger in Germany.”
Fourth most important Export market for Germany
In 2025, the Polish economy is expected to have grown by around three percent, similar to the previous year. For 2026, the forecasts even assume somewhat stronger growth. Germany is also benefiting from this boom. Poland is now the fourth most important export market for German companies and has therefore overtaken China. Only the USA, France and the Netherlands are even more important for the German economy.
For a long time, Poland was seen primarily as an extended workbench for Western companies, as a location for cost-effective production. This continues to be a strength of the Polish economy, but the country is also increasingly developing its own innovative strength.
The managing director of Vigo Photonics, Adam Piotrowski.
Vigo Photonics produces infrared sensors near Warsaw. These are installed, for example, in train tracks or in tanks – and even in space probes. Around 200 people currently work here, but the number of employees is expected to more than double by 2030, says managing director Adam Piotrowski. A new chip factory is planned. “Europe is currently relying on technological sovereignty. This means that production from Asia is returning to Europe,” said the company boss. “Poland is becoming a center for both production and innovation.”
Height New debt and aging society
Not everything is going well in Poland’s economy. The state’s new debt is one of the highest in the EU, and the aging of society is also posing problems for the social systems here. The truth is also: Poland owes its economic boom, among other things, to the EU, from whose funding it benefits massively.
Despite rapid growth, Poland’s economy is still far behind Germany’s. The German gross domestic product per capita is more than twice as high. Even if the lower cost of living is taken into account, Germans still have a significantly higher standard of living on average than Poles.
Big eyes in Germans business representatives
But Poland is catching up and doing a lot of things right, says economic expert Christopher Fuß. When he welcomes German company representatives in front of the glittering skyline of Warsaw, he regularly looks at amazed faces. “People then really open their eyes and their jaws drop,” says Fuß, describing the impressions of German delegations. The impressive development of the neighboring country is not really on the radar in Germany.
Entrepreneur Adam Piotrowski also gets big eyes when he drives through his home country. “When I see the factories, the infrastructure, the roads, the data centers that are currently being built,” he enthuses, “then I think we can be proud of where we stand as Poles.” For him and many of his compatriots, however, it is clear that they still do not have enough. That’s just the Polish mentality.
