. Poland, with its hard currency debt of
approximately $40 billion, is severely limited in its ability to import
much-needed hard currency goods. The sweeping political changes of 1989
disrupted normal economic channels and exacerbated shortages. In January
1990, the new Solidarity-led government adopted a cold turkey program for
transforming Poland to a market economy. The government moved to
eliminate subsidies, end artificially low prices, make the zloty
convertible, and, in general, halt the hyperinflation. These financial
measures are accompanied by plans to privatize the economy in stages.
Substantial outside aid will be needed if Poland is to make a successful
transition in the 1990s.

GNP: $172.4 billion, per capita $4,565; real growth rate - 1.6%
(1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 640% (1989 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%; 215,000 (official number, mid-March 1990)

Budget: revenues $23 billion; expenditures $24 billion, including
capital expenditures of $3.5 billion (1988)

Exports: $24.7 billion (f.o.b., 1987 est.);
commodities--machinery and equipment 63%; fuels, minerals, and
metals 14%; manufactured consumer goods 14%; agricultural and forestry
products 5% (1987 est.);
partners--USSR 25%, FRG 12%, Czechoslovakia 6% (1988)

Imports: $22.8 billion (f.o.b., 1987 est.);
commodities--machinery and equipment 36%; fuels, minerals, and
metals 35%; manufactured consumer goods 9%; agricultural and forestry
products 12%;
partners--USSR 23%, FRG 13%, Czechoslovakia 6% (1988)

External debt: $40 billion (1989 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate - 2.0% (1988)

Electricity: 31,390,000 kW capacity; 125,000 million kWh produced,
3,260 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: machine building, iron and steel, extractive industries,
chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

Agriculture: accounts for 15% of GNP and 28% of labor force; 75% of
output from private farms, 25% from state farms; productivity remains
low by European standards; leading European producer of rye, rapeseed,
and potatoes; wide variety of other crops and livestock; major exporter
of pork products; normally self-sufficient in food

Aid: donor--bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries,
$2.1 billion (1954-88)

Currency: zloty (plural--zlotych); 1 zloty (Zl) = 100 groszy

Exchange rates: zlotych (Zl) per US$1--9,500.00 (January 1990),
1,439.18 (1989), 430.55 (1988), 265.08 (1987), 175.29