(ANSA) - WARSAW - The dynamism of the Polish economy, also because of the grip of the crisis, continues to accelerate the run-up to the average of the gross domestic product of the European Union with a GDP that since 2004, the year of EU membership, had a 46.3%. jump. This was the best performance at a European level, underlines a report issued by Polish Foreign Ministry in the occasion of nine years of EU membership.

GDP - Poland, while slowing its growth since 2008, is still catching up to get closer to the average value of EU GDP, which is practically at a standstill: the Polish GDP from 2004 to 2007 grew by 5,5% (annual average), while the EU-27 grew by 2.8%. In the period 2008-2012, as a result of the recession, the Polish growth went down to 2.8% (annual average), while the EU-27 had a loss of 0.1%. For 2013, there is a forecast of GDP growth by 0.1% in the EU-27, which is expected to rise to 1, 6% in 2014: estimates of growth for Polish GDP are instead 1, 5% in 2013 and 2.5% in 2014, with further recovery.

IMPORT-EXPORT - During the last year export was one of the strengths of Polish economy, reaching the record value of 141.9 billion euro, of which 107.5 billion (75.8%) towards EU countries, with an overall 3,8% increase. Exports are dragged by industry and by agri-food sector.

EUROPEAN FUNDS - From 1 May 2004 to 31 March 2013 Poland received 79,2 billion euro of EU funds, while 28.1 billion have been paid out as a percentage of contributions and 141.7 million for funds' restitution, with a positive balance of more than 50 billion.

INFRASTRUCTURES - As part of the Cohesion Funds, Poland has received during the period 2004-2006 approximately 14.2 billion euro, of which 5.2 billion were used for the infrastructure network with the construction and modernization of 314 km of motorways, 465 km of freeways, and the renovation of 635 km of railway lines. In the period 2007-2013 Poland received 67.3 billion, of which 23.2 billion dedicated to transport. Thanks to these funds the country will be able to build, by 2015, 433 km of motorways, 900 km of expressways and to restructure over 600 km of railway lines.

CAPITAL FLOW FROM ABROAD - An outstanding effect of Poland accession into the European Union is the flow of capital from abroad, coming largely from migrants working in EU countries: from May 2004 till December 2012 the country collected about 32 billion euro from transfers of private money, which is equal to 86% of the whole flow of money from abroad, with a peak of 4.6 billion euro in 2007.

TRANSPORT SERVICES - Poland has a well developed road freight transport, which is able to compete effectively in the European market, with 62% growth in the period 2006-2011.

UNEMPLOYMENT - From 2003 to 2008, unemployment rate in Poland continued to decrease: in 2009, because of the crisis, on the contrary the rate rose to 12.1%. In 2012 is was stable at 13.4%, with 0,9% increase, compared to 2011. (ANSA)