Global credit crisis won't impact Poland

Poles can sleep soundly at night as Poland's economy is set to weather ongoing financial turmoil because of its balanced economy, said Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski on Tuesday during a press conference.

"I would like to stress that the Polish economy is particularly resilient to impact from financial markets," he said. "[Polish economy] is one of the best prepared to deal with tough circumstances in the world.

He also added that the Polish banks were largely not involved in the products that are causing problems in the American banking sector.

Poland's economy, according to Rostowski is well-balanced in terms of its microeconomics and Poles may rest when it comes to their savings.

However, Piotr Kalisz, senior economist at Citi told the WBJ that Poland may not be in part immune, but that doesn't mean it is completely immune.

"I don't think Poland will be affected as in Belgium, but I'm not as optimistic that Poland is an island that it won't be hit by a shock. The truth is somewhere in the middle. We don't know how far the shock will go. We cannot assess the impact on the Polish economy, banking and the financial system," Kalisz said.

When asked if the current credit crisis in the US will affect the euro adoption in 2011, Rostowski said it should not impact Poland's plans to enter the ERM-2 zone in the first half of 2009.

Rostowski also said there's no need to lower the government's 2009 growth forecast of 4.8 percent. (AO)

Source: Reuters