Poland’s GDP unlikely to decline in 2009

Unlike almost every other EU country, Poland’s GDP is unlikely to decline in 2009.

Recently I have been looking at the forecasts for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and only Poland is forecast to be in the black!

The GDP in Czech Republic and Slovakia is forecast to drop by about 3 to 4% in 2009, whilst the forecasts are that the GDP in   Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria will drop by between 7 and 8.5%.

Talking with my business friends in Poland, I find that in reality business is certainly not declining, though it is not increasing at the same rate it was in the last few years. The property market has, however, dropped.

What can we learn from this? Well, from my experience, I know that the management of banks in Poland learned a lot from their disasterous lending policies in the early 1990’s and they have maintained their cautious lending policies throughout the boom years since then.

If only UK and US bankers had applied the same policies in the last few years, perhaps the world economy would be more like that of Poland in 2009?

Copyright ©2009 Nigel Adams

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Author: Professor Nigel Adams

I am a Professor and the first Director of the Buckingham Enterprise and Innovation Unit in the Vinson Building at the University of Buckingham in England. I teach, advise & mentor undergraduate and post-graduate students, especially medical students, and alumni to become more innovative and enterprising by helping to develop their entrepreneurial mindsets. Between January 2018 and July 2025, the Buckingham Enterprise & Innovation Unit (BEIU) successfully managed the expenditure of about £2 million donated to the University by a successful alumna. We created and developed enterprising and innovative education and other projects in and around the University of Buckingham. As a result of our work, Innovation and Entrepreneurship is one of the university's strategies from 2023 to 2028. (https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/about/strategic-plan) From 2008 until 2019, I ran and developed the world's first undergraduate Venture Creation Programme (VCP - See https://www.vcplist.com for a definition). On the BSc Business Enterprise (BBE) programme, students had to start and run a real business as an integral part of their honours degree. Between 2002 and 2011, I was Managing Director of Nigel Adams & Company Ltd, providing business, management, international marketing, recruitment and other support and advice to the management of Western companies to help them establish business operations in Central & Eastern Europe & to improve their sales. I am an experienced international business adviser with over 50 years of experience in international business, enterprise, management, marketing & counter-trade. I lived in Poland from 1993 until 2002, working on Polish state company restructuring projects as a British Government Know How Fund Management Adviser. I am a lifetime member, Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).