Poland: Cistercian monks go to market
Jesus never came across as a big fan of markets – as he showed when he chased the moneychangers from the Temple – but now a group of Polish monks is looking to enter, albeit indirectly, into Mammon’s unholy precincts by floating on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
A company called Produkty Klasztorne (Monastery Products), which pays Cistercian monks a licensing fee to use their trademark, recipes, and raw materials, is listing on the exchange’s smaller companies’ alternative market.
Poland’s rate cut: start of a new cycle?
Poland’s slowing economy prompted the central bank’s Monetary Policy Council to cut rates by a quarter point to a record low of 3 per cent on Wednesday, surprising a majority of analysts who had expected the council to stay put after a recent easing cycle that had seen the bank’s benchmark rate come down from 4.75 per cent near the end of last year. Continue reading »
[snap] Poland cuts rates to record low
Poland’s central bank on Wednesday surprised the markets with a 25 basis-point cut in its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 3 per cent.
The bank had said that it was all but finished with rate cuts after reductions totalling 150 basis points. But clearly the latest evidence of economic slow down has disturbed and worried policymakers. Continue reading »
Poland’s economy: thunder and lightning or a summer shower?
Should Poles be getting out their umbrellas, or will a simple spring coat suffice? That’s the question as a debate begins over whether the clouds hanging over the Polish economy are merely grey or a much darker hue.
The gloomier forecast comes form the European Commission, which sees Polish growth slowing to 1.1 per cent this year followed by a recovery of 2.2 per cent in 2014. It correct, that lacklustre growth rate will have dire consequences for the country’s public finances. Continue reading »
CEE PMIs: Czech bad, Poland awful
Terrible news out of Poland on Thursday morning as Polish manufacturing showed signs of a steepening downturn, posting the worst results since the depths of the first wave of the economic crisis in 2009.
April’s purchasing managers index, compiled by Markit Economics for HSBC, hit 46.9, far below analysts’ expectations of 47.8 and the worst since July 2009. PMI figures of less than 50 denote a contraction of manufacturing, and Poland has been posting them for 13 successive months, the grimmest performance in a decade. Continue reading »
Poland’s retail sales: food for thought
Not even the purchase of Easter hams and cakes was enough to give much of a lift to Polish retail sales, which rose by only 0.1 per cent in March – less than analysts had expected.
The grim results are one more sign that the Polish economy is losing altitude and, by some estimates, may have stopped growing at all. Continue reading »
Poland: hold with a hint?
Poland kept interest rates steady at 3.25 per cent on Wednesday, as expected by analysts. And few expect the central bank to do anything other than hold for the rest of the year – assuming an economic recovery.
But the language of the bank is worth examining. Is that a hint of a further cut we hear? Continue reading »
CEE PMI gloom: can Poland or Czech R beat the bad numbers?
My way?
Optimistic hopes that the slowdown in central Europe would start to level out in the early months of this year are proving to be far off the mark.
New data shows an accelerating downturn in Poland and the Czech Republic, the region’s two largest economies. Continue reading »
Poland to Krugman: don’t patronise us over euro choice
Like many ambitious strivers, Poland is pretty thin-skinned when being criticised. So no surprise that when Nobel laureate Paul Krugman (pictured) weighed in on the Polish economy and on the country’s debate over joining the euro, the response was blistering. Continue reading »
Poland: Warsaw region GDP per capita beats EU average
Poland’s long scramble to catch up to western Europe has hit a new milestone – for the first time a Polish region has a higher per capita GDP than the EU average.
Mazowsze, the central Polish region which, crucially, contains Warsaw, the country’s largest and wealthiest city, hit 102 per cent of EU per capita GDP in 2010, reports Eurostat, the EU data service. Continue reading »
Poland: not picking up after all
What looked like the bottom may have turned out to simply be a ledge as new data shows that the Polish economy is still sinking, with retail sales coming in below expectations and unemployment continuing to rise.
Retail sales in February contracted by an annual 0.8 per cent, far below consensus of a 0.4 per cent increase, largely due to a slump in car and fuel sales. Retail sales rose by 3.1 per cent in January, an unexpected result that now seems to be a one-off. Continue reading »
Poland: r&d gap could hurt growth
Take a hint from me
Poland has been one of ex-Communist Europe economic stars over the last two decades – but there are growing concerns over the future because of the country’s longstanding lack of innovation.
The Polish economy is currently in the midst of a sharper slowdown than was foreseen even a few months ago, but most economists expect a return to more robust growth by the end of 2013. A bigger worry is what happens a decade from now. Continue reading »
CEE: green shoots of recovery?
That bumping sound you hear may be the echo of Poland’s economy hitting bottom with new data showing the the economy grew by just 1.1 per cent in the final quarter of the year.
But disappointing though that is for a country that has boasted of its ability to ride the post-2007 global crisis, it was slightly more than the consensus forecast of 0.9 per cent. And new purchasing managers index numbers from central Europe released on Friday also suggest the region is doing a bit better than before, thanks largely to a pick-up in Germany, the biggest export market. Continue reading »
Rostowski: Poland due for a rebound
By Jan Cienski and Neil Buckley
The slowing Polish economy is due for a boost from the stabilisation of the eurozone, which “is no longer a house on the verge of collapse”, Jacek Rostowski, Poland’s finance minister, tells beyondbrics. Continue reading »
Poland relaxes consumer credit rules to boost flagging economy
Poland’s government is tossing a bit of caution aside in its attempts to breathe some life back into the fading economy – as seen by the recent decision by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) to ease up on regulations concerning consumer loans. Continue reading »
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