Stock ownership and saving accounts begin to become increasingly popular

The rate of individual investors on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) is constantly growing, while the rising number of saving accounts shows that banks are winning the trust of the wider public. In 2003 saving deposits in banks rose by over zł.100 million, while the level of savings lodged with investment funds rose by 18.8%, that is zł.4.5 billion. Nowadays, the public perceive their financial situation as much better than in 2003 and the number of those who do not have any savings dropped from 59% to 56%. Investing in the WSE is also gaining acceptance. In 2003 only 2% of the public saw bourse investments as profitable, while in 2004 this figure jumped to 8%. However, not all the news is good, for the survey showed that in January 2004 39% of the public declared they had not conducted any financial operation during the last 12 months. One ray of hope was that this figure was 10% lower than that in a survey conducted in January 2003. The most popular form of saving is in current bank accounts, which are possessed by 36% of the public. Following Poland's accession to the EU, there was also a dynamic rise in the percentage of people buying foreign currencies, which rose from 8% to 12%. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) D.W.