Squirreling away their savings

Almost 50 percent of Poles avoid taking any risks when saving money for their future. Their favorite form of investment is keeping a savings-account booklet, shows a recent survey conducted by GfK for Raiffeisen Capital Management.

The survey labels them Safety Fanatics - an average representative of this group, which consists of some 15 million Poles, is a 60-year-old woman living in a rural area.

"For them security of investment is the most important condition. Their investment possibilities are also limited - they haven't got much time left. On the other hand, old-age pensioners are the group in which average savings per capita are the highest, but they keep it in savings-account booklets - the most 'old-school' way of saving one can think of," explains Janusz Sielicki from GfK.

"In Poland, the tradition of investing is rather short, as for many years we suffered from a lack of financial resources rather than a surplus. Once people get used to the fact that we don't live in a country with hyperinflation anymore and that they won't get 30-percent interest on their bank deposit, they'll start looking for alternative investment instruments," commented Piotr Czarnecki, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Polska.

Other groups identified by the survey are: Chary Investors (14 percent) - both men and women, middle-aged city-dwellers who like to diversify their investments and make educated, safe choices; Fun Seekers (16 percent) - who like to take risks but at the same time have limited free resources; and finally Greenhorns (22 percent) - a group consisting of young people who don't have their own income yet and think more about having fun than securing their future.

"The survey proves that a distinct saving pattern hasn't yet emerged in Poland. It might be a big opportunity for the development of the more advanced investment forms, such as investment funds. So far, they have been preferred by Greenhorns and Chary Investors, accounting for 36 percent of the population. This means investment funds might become even more popular in the future," said Werner Niepel, director of Raiffeisen International Fund Advisory.

The survey also shows that almost 60 percent of Poles don't save their money at all.