assets. About 75% of agricultural production had come from the
private sector and the rest from state farms. The economy has presented a
picture of moderate but slowing growth against a background of underlying
weaknesses in technology and worker motivation. GNP dropped by 2.0% in
1989 and by a further 8.9% in 1990. The inflation rate, after falling
sharply from the 1982 peak of 100% to 22% in 1986, rose to a galloping
rate of 640% in 1989 and dropped back to 250% in 1990. Shortages of
consumer goods and some food items worsened in 1988-89. Agricultural
products and coal are among the biggest hard currency earners, but
manufactures are increasing in importance. Poland, with its hard currency
debt of $48.5 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, free prices, make the zloty convertible, and,
in general, halt the hyperinflation. These financial measures were
accompanied by plans to privatize the economy in stages. While inflation
fell to an annual rate of 77.5% by November of 1990, the rise in
unemployment and the drop in living standards have led to growing popular
discontent and to a change of government in January 1991. The new
government is continuing the previous government's economic
program, while trying to speed privatization and to better cushion the
populace from the dislocations associated with reform. Substantial
outside aid will be needed if Poland is to make a successful transition
in the 1990s.

_#_GNP: $158.5 billion, per capita $4,200; real growth rate - 8.9%
(1990 est.)

_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): 250% (1990 est.)

_#_Unemployment rate: 6.1% (end-December 1990)

_#_Budget: revenues $20.9 billion; expenditures $23.4 billion,
including capital expenditures of $2.8 billion (1989)

_#_Exports: $12.9 billion (f.o.b., 1989);

commodities--machinery and equipment 38%; fuels, minerals, and
metals 21%; manufactured consumer goods 15%; agricultural and forestry
products 4% (1989);

partners--USSR 25%, FRG 14%, UK 6.5%, Czechoslovakia 5.5% (1989)

_#_Imports: $12.8 billion (f.o.b., 1989);

commodities--machinery and equipment 37%; fuels, minerals, and
metals 31%; manufac