The authors analyze the importance of the key factors behind real GDP growth in Poland against the background of two other new EU member states, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The analysis makes use of an “index decomposition method” that directly takes into account the influence of changes in terms of trade. The authors highlight potential traps resulting from the interpretation of real GDP as an indicator of real incomes under changing terms of trade. Notably, average annual GDP growth in Poland in 1995-2002 was much higher than in other new EU member states, but in the case of real GDP growth, that prevalence proved to be much smaller. The most important factors behind GDP growth in the three analyzed countries were an increase in productivity and the accumulation of capital.