Economy of Warsaw

In addition to serving as Poland's leading administrative center, Warsaw is also a center for science, research, and higher education.

Since World War II the city's industrial base has been developed, with diverse plants producing steel, cars, tractors, and consumer electronics.

Warsaw is the second most important industrial region in Poland (after Katowice in the south).

Warsaw, more than anywhere else in the country, has benefited from the boom in construction and commerce that followed the fall of Communism in 1989.

Warsaw’s unemployment was negligible in the 1990s (3 percent in 1997 compared with a national average of 11 percent), wages in Warsaw were better than average, and the city is the top destination for foreign investment.

For example, an Italian company took over the Warsaw steelworks, a South Korean firm purchased an automobile factory, and a French electronics firm now runs a television plant in Warsaw.

Western banks, supermarkets, and hotel chains have invested in Warsaw.

Warsaw’s economy is now based more on trade, distribution, and services than on manufacturing, which, though still important, is moving to second place.

One phenomenon of the 1990s was the explosion of so-called bazaar trade as Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians and others flocked to Warsaw to buy and sell.

The market at Dziesięciolecia Stadium is Poland's largest and is consistently ranked among the nation’s top five export earners.

Warsaw is also developing as a center for finance, banking, and consulting.

The stock exchange reopened in 1991 after being shuttered for 50 years.

Vibrant and expanding cultural activities have also ensured the city’s place as a tourist center.

Warsaw’s most impressive economic feature has been the broad scale of new construction, including hotels, offices, low-rise housing, warehouses, supermarkets, and the subway.

The international airport at Okęcie in the southern part of the city was rebuilt in 1992.

Another marked change in Warsaw’s economic and cultural life was the sudden development after 1989 of many new private television and radio stations, newspapers, and magazines.