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Good economic performance, one of the best in European Union (EU) economies during the global crisis of 2008-2009 and the subsequent economic slowdown in Europe in 2009 and 2010, did not save Poland from experiencing a decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows during 2008-2010. Inflows in 2010, at US$ 9 billion, were only 38% of their peak value of 2007. In 2011, inflows started to recover, reaching US$ 14.3 billion. In 2010, the FDI stock in Poland surpassed US$ 200 billion for the first time and was by far the largest among the stocks held in the new member economies of the EU from Central and Eastern Europe. Economic prospects of Poland are favorable, but the ongoing debt crisis and the continuing economic slowdown in Western Europe, the dominant home region for multinational enterprises (MNEs) investing in Poland, put a question mark on the strength of any further recovery of FDI inflows.

During the transition toward a market economy, for many years Poland's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) was small and limited to trade-supporting activities in key export markets. It took off and started growing rapidly only five or six years ago, when the Polish private sector had matured enough to start generating homegrown multinational enterprises (MNEs). Some state-owned enterprises (SOEs) began also investing abroad, sometimes with the Government's encouragement. By contrast, in terms of private companies, Poland adopted a laissez-faire policy, leaving the emergence and expansion of private MNEs to market forces. In addition, Poland became a source and a transit country for large cross-border flows of funds among units of foreign and Polish firms, classified as FDI flows, artificially inflating OFDI. In the first year of the worldwide financial and economic crisis (2008) OFDI flows declined rather modestly to start growing again in 2009 and 2010 due to a relatively good performance of the Polish economy during the crisis.

By 2009, Poland had attracted the highest inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) stock (US$ 182 billion) among the new members of the European Union (EU) from Central and Eastern Europe. Its FDI inflows increased considerably after the country's accession to the EU. They fell during the crisis, but rather modestly, remaining at higher levels than in other countries of the region. The combination of a competitive and constantly improving policy framework for FDI and investment in general, the best GDP growth performance among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2009 and favorable projections for 2010 and 2011 augurs well for the recovery of IFDI in Poland. In fact, there are signs of strong recovery already in the first quarter of 2010, with FDI inflows over two times higher than during the same period of the previous year.