Ports Expand in Poland

The number of containers handled by Poland's four sea ports - Gdynia, Gdansk, Szczecin, Swinoujscie - increased by 31% last year, giving Poland fourth place behind Russia, Sweden and Finland.

Cargo traffic in the Baltic sea is expected to grow rapidly over the coming years, and all Polish seaports plan major capacity expansion to capture a share of this growth. They stand a good chance as St.Petersburg, the largest transshipment port in the Baltic, which is operating at full capacity, has no possibility to develop further.

The four Polish ports plan to spend 600 million dollars on new capacity over the next five years, taking the total to more than eight million containers per year, up from 1.7 million at present.

Gdansk, in particular, is seeking to position itself as the Baltic's main transshipment hub.

Source: Rzeczpospolita

A Tiny Bit Over

Although the Polish treasury is benefitting from strong economic growth, the EU Commission has called on Poland to step up actions to bring its public finances in line with EU rules, projecting that Warsaw was likely to miss an EU deficit target.

Under the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, members are required to keep their public deficits to 3 percent.

The commission forecast that the Polish deficit would stand at 3.4 percent in 2007 despite a promise from Warsaw to its EU partners to meet the three percent limit this year.