Polish services pick up speed. Growth far outpaces the EU

This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers

Services have clearly accelerated

Average services output growth rose from 3.8% year on year between January 2024 and March 2025 to 6.2% over the following 15 months. The acceleration has been particularly evident since mid-2025. Since then, monthly services output growth has most often exceeded 5% year on year, compared with the 3–4% range seen in most earlier months.

Growth peaked in January 2026, when services output increased by 10.1% year on year. The pace subsequently eased but remained relatively strong, at 6.3% year on year in June 2026. The data therefore suggest that the acceleration is not merely the result of a handful of exceptionally strong months, but reflects a more persistent trend.

Among the EU leaders

Services output in Poland is also growing markedly faster than in most EU countries. Between June 2024 and June 2026, services output increased by 11.7% in Poland, compared with 4.9% across the European Union as a whole. This means that growth in Poland was almost 2.4 times as strong as the EU average.

Among the countries analyzed, only Greece, at 26.1%, and Lithuania, at 14.0%, recorded stronger growth. Estonia matched Poland’s 11.7% increase. Growth was also relatively brisk in Slovenia, at 11.1%, and Slovakia, at 8.2%. At the other end of the table were Austria, Denmark and Italy, where services output rose by just 0.4%, 1.8% and 2.1%, respectively, over the two-year period.

Broad-based growth

In Poland, however, services output growth has been far more broad-based than in Greece. Between June 2024 and June 2026, output increased across all the sectors analyzed. Growth was particularly strong in professional services, including other professional, scientific and technical activities (25%), advertising and market research (22.2%) and legal and accounting activities (21.5%).

In Greece, by contrast, the much stronger increase in overall services output was driven to a large extent by a handful of sectors posting exceptionally rapid growth, above all accommodation and food services (63.2%), architectural and engineering activities (82.4%) and other professional, scientific and technical activities (59.2%).