.6% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$6,800 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 5.1%
industry: 26.6%
services: 68.3% (1997)

Population below poverty line: 23.8% (1993 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 4%
highest 10%: 22.1% (1992)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 11% (1998 est.)

Labor force: 17.4 million (1998 est.)

Labor force--by occupation: industry and construction 29.9%,
agriculture 26%, services 44.1% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 10% (1998)

Budget:
revenues: $36.5 billion
expenditures: $38.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1997 est.)

Industries: machine building, iron and steel, coal mining,
chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

Industrial production growth rate: 7.9% (1998 est.)

Electricity--production: 134.731 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 97.09%
hydro: 2.91%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 132.291 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 7.925 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 5.485 billion kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat;
poultry, eggs, pork, beef, milk, cheese

Exports: $27.2 billion (f.o.b., 1997)

Exports--commodities: manufactured goods, chemicals 57%, machinery
and equipment 21%, food and live animals 12%, mineral fuels 7%,
other 3%

Exports--partners: Germany 32.9%, Russia 8.4%, Italy 5.9%, Ukraine
4.7%, Netherlands 4.7%, France 4.4%

Imports: $38.5 billion (f.o.b., 1997)

Imports--commodities: manufactured goods, chemical 43%, machinery
and equipment 36%, mineral fuels 9%, food and live animals 8%, other
4%

Imports--partners: Germany 24.1%, Italy 9.9%, Russia 6.3%, UK
5.5%, US 4.5%, France 5.9%

Debt--external: $42 billion (1997)

Economic aid--recipient: $4.312 billion (1995)

Currency: 1 zloty (Zl) = 100 groszy

Exchange rates: zlotych (Zl) per US$1--3.5409 (January 1999),
3.4754 (1998), 3.2793 (1997), 2.6961 (1996), 2.4250 (1995); note--a
currency reform on 1 January 1995 replaced 10,000 old zlotys with 1
new zloty; 22,723 (1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 8.2 million (1996)

Telephone system: underdeveloped and outmoded system; government
aims to have 10 million telephones in service by 2000; the process
of partial privatiza