According to the Centre for Economic Information (COIG), nearly 184,000 firms were registered in the first half of 2013. By comparison, only 455 went bankrupt.
The statistics indicate a more than 10 per cent increase in the number of new firms compared with the second half of 2012.
Witold Michalek of Poland’s Business Centre Club (BCC) notes that some of the founders of firms may have been encouraged to set up companies by employers aiming to avoid having too much staff on permanent contracts.
This practice lowers the taxation and social security costs of parent firms. “But I think the main reason [for the increased number of firms] is that there is a better economic climate for starting one’s own business,” Michalek told the Puls Biznesu daily.
Poland’s GDP growth rate has been slowing in recent years, with the World Bank putting estimates for 2013 at 1 per cent, as opposed to 1.9 in 2012.
However, consumer spending has been rising, with statistics for July marking a 4.3 per cent increase on the same month last year.
Source: Based on Polish Radio External Service
Photo © Anna Karahan