WARSAW, April 21 (Reuters) - Poland was the only European country not to suffer recession during the financial crisis, the Polish statistics office said on Thursday, after it revised data that had shown in March the economy contracted in late 2012 and early 2013.
Last month, the statistics office said Poland's seasonally adjusted gross domestic product declined 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2013 and 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2012. Two consecutive quarters of decline are technically a recession.
This week the statistics office revised data for the first quarter of 2013 to zero, allowing politicians to call Poland a "green island" again.
"The difference is minimal, so the significance of this data is rather symbolic, but indeed, Poland was a green island," Jakub Rybacki, an ING Bank Slaski economist, said on Thursday.
"But what is more important, despite temporary slowdown, Poland is now doing well, with economic growth rising, and receiving even more fuel from the 500 plus program that will effectively influence the economy in May," Rybacki also said.
Poland's eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party which won October election after eight years of pro-business Civic Platform (PO) rule, introduced a broad social spending agenda, including 500 zlotys ($131.86) monthly child benefit, financed from new taxes.
($1 = 3.7918 zlotys) (Reporting by Marcin Goclowski, editing by Larry King)