Losses of Polish economy exceeded PLN 185 bln in year of pandemic

During the first year of the pandemic and the accompanying lockdowns, the Polish economy lost over PLN 185 billion – this is the result of the Covid-19 loss counter, conducted since April 2020 by the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs. The above amount corresponds to an estimate of the GDP that was not generated by the spread of the coronavirus. The service sector, which is affected by the longest restrictions, suffers the greatest losses. 

During the deepest lockdown last year, the Polish economy lost even PLN 1.2 billion a day. However, this is a clearly better result than the initially estimated loss of over PLN 2 billion a day. With the advent of late spring and summer, business activities began to gradually unfreeze – allowing the economy to catch its breath. In the fall, the epidemic began to deteriorate again, which led to the return of restrictions.

“Characteristic for the current phase of the pandemic is the much greater diversification of its impact on the activities of individual industries. Many sectors – not directly affected by business restrictions – have adapted to the new conditions to such an extent that, despite the high number of cases and strict sanitary rules, the difficult epidemic situation does not translate significantly into their turnover. Industry, construction, transport, or IT services did not suffer significantly from the second wave of the pandemic, and even – despite its worsening – record an improvement in financial results. On the other hand, industries directly affected by the pandemic and business restrictions are in an increasingly dramatic situation. No adaptation measures can help when their activities remain closed under the provisions of the regulations. A serious problem is the fact that the restrictions introduced in response to the second wave of the coronavirus last much longer than in spring 2020 – which leads to the depletion of liquidity reserves in long-term closed enterprises. Consequently, the current period is characterized by a clear division into two groups of companies – those that operate relatively undisturbed and even grow despite the pandemic, and those that are plunged into increasing problems due to protracted lockdowns. Under the present conditions, the losses of the Polish economy can be estimated at PLN 450 million a day,” Łukasz Kozłowski, chief economist of the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs, vice president of the Center for Legislative Analysis and Economic Policy (CALPE), said.

(WBJ)