The cup runneth over

Investment funds in Poland reached a landmark in January, surpassing zł.100 billion in total assets. By month's end their value had reached a whopping zł.106.9 billion. This marks another success for the investment-fund industry in Poland, which was the fastest growing in Europe in 2006. Assets in Poland grew by over 61 percent during the course of last year, jumping from zł.61.3 billion to zł.98.8 billion. "This dynamic growth is the result of the boom on the WSE and the growing popularity of the funds," explained Maciej Dyl, President of the Chamber of Fund and Asset Management.

Thanks to this rapid growth, the Polish market surpassed that of Greece and Turkey in terms of value. However, the assets collected in Polish investment funds still account for just 0.3 percent of the total European market. "We are happy that the market is growing, but growth is dependent on the society's wealth," Dyl said.

More than half of the funds are invested in stable-growth funds (which means investing more in bonds than in stocks) and WSE-based balanced funds (in which stocks are dominant). More and more Poles are locating their assets in stock-only funds. These funds made up 12 percent of the market at the end of 2005 and grew to around 20 percent in the following 12 months. "This shows an increasing openness to risk," Dyl points out.

As for this year, Dyl expects the funds to continue to grow rapidly. "In December, the predictions for 2007 were between zł.120-130 billion. Now I'd rather go for zł.130-140 billion," he said.