There are signs indicating the Polish economy is rebounding” Professor Elżbieta Adamowicz from the Institute of Regional Development at the Warsaw School of Economics (IRG SGH) said at a conference held by Polish Conference of Financial Enterprises (KPF).

The IRG SGH barometer grew by a symbolic 3.5 points in Q2 as compared with Q1 suggesting that the worst of the crisis might have passed. “We forecast a positive GDP growth this year” Adamowicz said echoing the opinion of Poland’s officials, who see the GDP contracting but not dropping below zero. The new orders portfolio in the processing industry was narrower by 19% than a year ago in the January-to-March quarter after shrinking by over 50% in this year’s first quarter. “Poland’s internal situation looks stable but no one can say how the global macroeconomic situation will affect Poland’s economy” Adamowicz concluded.

Household finances and the consumer finance market may not be healing as quickly, although their situation is also showing signs of optimism. The worst fears concern job losses. A study by IRG SGH shows alarming signs that the unemployment rate may jump to its maximum since 2000. “One of the most significant changes noted this quarter concerns household ways of financing purchases. Currently 43% of households are looking for cash to finance the construction of their house, when a year ago only 25% would do so, while majority would resort to bank loans” Piotr Białowolski (IRG SGH) underlined. Sławomir Dudek (IRG SGH) pointed to another major change – in the attitude of households towards the planned replacing the Polish currency the zloty with the euro. “According to our research 55% of households are now in favour of adopting the euro as quickly as possible. This figure was lower by 10 percentage points one year ago” he said.

Adam Łącki, president of the National Debt Register (KRD) noted that entrepreneurs are voicing growing optimism, although their wallets are thinning. According to KRD’s data an average 30% of accounts receivable are outstanding and a company must spend almost 9% of their value to collect debts.