Poland will exit the World Bank after more than 40 years, a decision officials present as progress. Finance Minister Andrzej Domański unveiled a six-year partnership framework on June 16, targeting 2031 for the end of its borrowing relationship with the institution.
The country passed the World Bank’s high-income threshold in 2009 when per capita income topped $13,935. Despite this status, Poland continued using the bank’s resources, receiving $16.5 billion in commitments since 1990. Economic growth reached 3.6% last year, an improvement from 3% in 2024, while per capita income now nears Western European levels.
Anna Bjerde, the bank’s managing director for operations, described Poland’s transformation as rare. The nation’s GDP exceeded $1 trillion in 2025, a stark contrast to the failing planned economy Leszek Balcerowicz’s reforms overhauled in 1990. Those changes coincided with the World Bank’s initial loan to Poland, a relationship that endured even as the country’s economic position strengthened.
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The bank’s current priorities in Poland focus on innovation. Ary Naïm, its first country manager for Poland, called the next phase a push toward the “innovation frontier.” Anna Akhalkatsi, the bank’s country director for the European Union, presented a report, Innovation Rising, on March 12 that highlighted productivity challenges.
Naïm had previously highlighted the productivity challenge in 2024, framing it as a focus for the next phase rather than one of growth alone.
The World Bank’s role in Poland is changing from direct lending to attracting private capital. Bjerde stressed the institution’s goal to “deepen Poland’s shallow markets” rather than issue large loans. The International Finance Corporation, the bank’s private-sector arm, will fund companies directly, while guarantees aim to lower risk for commercial lenders. Domański named investment, innovation, and jobs as the framework’s main goals.
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The country has also been the largest recipient of EU cohesion and recovery funds, another key source of development financing. Bjerde noted Poland’s experience could guide others facing similar challenges. Naïm, who joined the IFC in 2003, now treats Poland as a testing ground for the bank’s private-capital strategies, which are already being applied to Ukraine’s recovery.
The partnership lets the World Bank remain involved with one of the few economies to shift from a planned system to a market one. For Poland, the arrangement provides a cost-effective way to access expertise and capital tools as it enters its next economic stage. The borrowing window will close in 2031, but the relationship may continue in a different form.
This date coincides with the 40th anniversary of the World Bank’s first loan to Poland. The country’s exit won’t mean an abrupt separation—only a change in how it works with the institution that once helped reshape its economy.