Poland tips 3.8% growth for 2015, highest in three years

(WARSAW) - Central European heavyweight Poland said Tuesday it expected its economy to expand by 3.8 percent in 2015, its strongest growth in three years, despite civil unrest in neighbouring Ukraine.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centre-right government approved the 2015 draft budget on Tuesday, according to an official statement.

The plans call for inflation to climb to 2.3 percent next year, ruling out long-term deflationary risks.

Inflation crept down to 0.3 percent year-on-year in April from an annual average 0.9 percent recorded in 2013.

Joblessness is forecast to drop to 9.3 percent next year from the current 12.5 percent.

But Warsaw analysts warn that sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis risk dampening growth this year, which the government has forecast at 3.3 percent.

Poland's economy expanded by 1.6 percent last year, down from 1.9 percent in 2012 and 4.5 percent in 2011, as it geared up to co-host the Euro 2012 football championships with Ukraine.

Poland, a 2004 EU entrant of 38 million people, has clocked growth each year since 1992, just three years after the collapse of its communist-era economy.