Wider business mood sinks into pessimism as Szczecin Shipyard goes under

After three months of improvement and a record high result in May, the indicator of Polish entrepreneurs' business mood, as calculated by Puls Biznesu daily, fell in June by 8 points, from 2.8 to negative 5.2. The index is calculating by taking into account the average of businessmens' opinion about the past month and their perspective for the coming three months. According to the study, optimistic entrepreneurs do not stay that way for long. The most disappointing result was the outlook among the top 500 companies where the indicator fell by almost 13 points. The only area where businesspeople were not so critical, was about the aspect of their company's readiness to join the EU and their ability to compete on the European market. The weakening confidence of the business climate seems to be directly influenced, not only by poor financial results of the corporations themselves, but primarily by the macroeconomic situation and tensions in the wider economy. Another factor which strongly influenced perspectives was the event around the Szczecin Shipyard. The bankruptcy of such a huge enterprise, which was held up as an example of a successful privatization, and the fact that it was unable to survive in spite of having full order books, shocked the business community. (Puls Biznesu, p. 2) A.K.