‘We will not escape falling GDP and rising unemployment’: expert
22:56
Comparing the level of the crisis in Poland with other countries – mainly Western Europe – you can think that the coronavirus pandemic did not affect us too much. The projected 5 percent decline in GDP looks good, compared with a decline of several percent in Spain and France. It's true – the pandemic affected Eastern Europe much less than other countries. This can be seen in the example of Germany, where the border between the number of cases divides the country into the eastern and western parts. Why this is so, nobody knows. However, one should not be delighted with the situation of our economy. The 5 percent decline in GDP is still a huge crisis, not seen in Poland for 30 years.
“Talking about the economic green island is an exaggeration. This is not the normal crisis we are used to. The situation is very difficult. A 5 percent reduction in GDP is a gigantic decline, which is accompanied by a huge increase in the state debt,” professor Witold Orłowski, an economist, told the eNewsroom website.
“Today we can say that we are coping well. But the situation is very difficult. We can still expect a collapse of many indicators, such as unemployment. Thanks to state intervention, unemployment did not increase – which is also observed in the European market. However, the cost of this is a huge increase in public debt. We will pay the price for it in the future, and unemployment will soon start to rise,” predicts Orłowski.
