Poland is, apart from Australia, the only OECD member country that has continuously recorded economic growth for 27 years now. On average, the Polish economy developed at a rate of 4% annually over the period. According to Central Statistical Office (GUS) data, in the second quarter of 2019, Polish GDP grew by 4.4% y/y, a growth rate that is three times higher than the growth rate recorded in other EU countries.

In recent years, however, there has been a growing disparity in the importance of consumption and investments in generating GDP in Poland.

According to the “Investments in Poland. Opportunities and risks” report by the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (ZPP), Poland’s spending on investments is clearly below the EU average. It is also below the levels seen in the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Countries such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, and Romania have a higher investment rate than Poland. Bank Pekao experts came to similar conclusions in their “Polish economy and challenges for the next decades” report. The authors of the report paid particular attention to the relatively low level of investment in the private enterprise sector.

The poor results of the investment index of private Polish enterprises have been noticed by the Fitch rating agency, which cited them as one of the reasons for lowering Poland’s economic growth forecast for 2019, 2020 and 2021 to 4.1%, 3.3% and 2.9% respectively. 

(300gospodarka)