The Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) last week advised that during the period of January to July 2020, Poland recorded a foreign trade surplus of €5.6b EUR. For the same period in 2019, Poland recorded a trade deficit of minus €0.2b EUR.
Whilst a surplus is always welcome news, it does come a result of significantly reduced trade – with exports of €129.6b being down 6% for the same period in 2019, and imports down 10% to €124.0b.
There is variation in the calculation of Poland’s trade balance which, depending on the reporting currency, can show different % values for import and export movements.
In the local Polish currency, the % decline in import / export values is less pronounced than the Euro based calculation with exports showing a decrease of 3.9% and imports decreasing by 8.1%.
When expressed in USD, the reduction in overall trade value shows a decrease in exports of 8.4% and a decrease in imports of 12.3%.
Source: GUS (Statistics Office) ‘Foreign trade turnover of goods in total and by countries in January-July 2020.’