Poland

The Republic of Poland is in Central Europe bordering Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea. Poland is slightly smaller than New Mexico and covers an area of 312,679 sq. kilometers. The total population is 38.38 million and is shrinking at a rate of 0.09% with 60.9% living in urban areas. The capital of Warsaw has a population of 1.69 million with other main cities including Lodz (776,000), Krakow (757,000), Wroclaw (636,000), and Poznan (573,000). The people are governed by a republic, are predominately Roman Catholic, and their primary language is Polish. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and joined the EU in 2004. Poland currently uses the Polish Zloty as currency but aims to adopt the Euro by 2012.

Poland has experienced great economic success for the past 15 years transitioning to a more modern and stable economy, on par with the other Baltic states. Although the economy is not yet on par with the European powers, membership in the EU and the accompanying aid has proved to be a huge benefit for the Polish economy. Poland’s main trade partners are mostly in the EU including, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Italy, UK, and Netherlands, but also include Russia and China. Its primary imports are machinery and transport equipment, intermediate manufactured goods, chemicals, minerals, and fuels. Exports include machinery and transport equipment, intermediate manufactured goods, miscellaneous manufactured goods, and food and live animals. Poland’s GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is $814.1 billion and is growing at a real rate of 2% with an inflation rate of 3.7%. Poland ranked 55th out of 185 countries in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking

Doing Business in Poland(2012)Click the links below for articles with more information on Franchising in Poland

Reform of European Union Rules on Distribution(2010)

European Commission's New Block Exemption Rules Enter Into Force June 1(2010)

* CPI Score is published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

**Ease of Doing Business Ranking is determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries.www.doingbusiness.org

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.