This paper uses several decomposition of poverty and poverty changes to identify factors explaining recent changes in absolute income and consumption poverty in Poland during 1998-2008. Shapley decompositions of poverty changes into growth and redistribution components show that fast economic growth was the main source of a radical fall in absolute
poverty since 2005. Distributional changes had a more profound effect on absolute poverty during 1998-2005. Sectoral decompositions of poverty suggest that stagnant wages and pensions as well as growing unemployment were major factors accounting for increasing poverty between 1998 and 2005. Decompositions of poverty indices by income sources show that social insurance is the most effective income source in reducing poverty incidence in Poland, while social assistance is the most effective source in fighting intensity of poverty.