CEE ECONOMY-Poland picks up speed in second quarter
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Poland's economy accelerated in the second quarter, preliminary data showed on Friday, albeit slightly more slowly than analysts had expected.
The Polish statistics office said gross domestic product rose by 1.9% quarter-on-quarter on a seasonally-adjusted basis, up from a revised 1.3% rise in the previous quarter, but below a Reuters poll forecast of 2.1%.
Year-on-year, the economy jumped 10.9%, returning to growth a year after the coronavirus pandemic hammered activity.
Central European economies have been expected to kick their recovery up a gear in the second quarter and Poland is the second to report quarterly figures.
Czech data at the end of July showed a solid recovery although the pace - with a 0.6% quarter-on-quarter rise and 7.8% year-on-year expansion - was below forecasts.
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria will report preliminary second-quarter data on Aug. 17.
Activity in Poland, the region's largest economy, was likely backed by revived consumption and also investment, although no breakdown of the data was yet available.
The quarterly rise showed "the easing of restrictions in trade and services supported the recovery," Grzegorz Maliszewski, chief economist at Bank Millennium, said.
"The pandemic remains a factor of uncertainty, but its impact during the autumn wave will be less," he added, saying the economy has learned already to adapt and vaccinations among the population have grown.
Central Europe is shaking off the effects of the pandemic, having eased lockdowns on retail and hospitality earlier this year. Industry, though, as in other countries is grappling with global supply shortages.
Purchasing managers' indices (PMI) still show solid expansion ahead even though survey readings in Poland and the Czech Republic cooled in July from record highs.
Official data on Friday also confirmed that Polish inflation rose in July to 5.0% year-on-year, from 4.4% in June.
Despite swift growth and strong inflationary pressures around central Europe, Poland's central bank has so far refrained from starting to raise interest rates, unlike peers in the Czech Republic and Hungary which started tightening policy already in June.
(Writing by Jason Hovet; Editing by Susan Fenton)
