A Polish 100 zloty banknote. Western European economies may be suffering, but no one seems to have told the Polish consumer as retail sales and other economic factors remain sttrong.KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS
"We had our old television for 16 years, so it was time to get something new," says Janusz, proudly wheeling an enormous 46-inch plasma television in a shopping cart toward his car.
"We've had our eye on this for a while – my job is secure and I don't feel any danger," says the portly electronics engineer in his mid-50s, who declined to give his full name.
He and his wife Maria have just spent 2,500 zlotys (€570, or $795) on their new purchase at a sprawling Media Markt store in Warsaw. "We had some extra money coming in and we're normally fairly careful with our spending, so I don't think we're taking a risk," he says.
Europe's economy is running on empty, but no one seems to have told the Polish consumer.
Retail sales grew by 11.4 per cent a year in September. A buoyant retail sector was one of the main factors that kept Poland from falling into a recession in 2009, and Poland's shoppers look set to repeat that feat next year.
Polish industry has also yet to feel a chill from its western neighbours – industrial output rose by an annual 7.7 per cent in September, while growth in manufacturing shows signs of accelerating.
"I'm not putting my money away in a sock," says Wojciech Heydel, an insurance broker, who recently bought a new €200 dining room table.
"I just don't see the end of the world coming. I can see the crisis in western Europe, but so far it isn't changing my shopping habits."
Hania Gromnicka, a riding instructor, has just taken out a loan to spend 25,000 zlotys on a horse. "Of course I'm a little worried about the economic situation, but this was more important for me," she says as her son canters round a hippodrome in the Warsaw suburbs.
More mundane purchases are also keeping business brisk. Portugal's Jeronimo Martins group, which owns a chain of discount grocery shops, has seen sales rise by 25 per cent so far this year. It plans to invest €1.5-billion in Poland in the next three years as it nearly doubles its network to 3,000 stores by 2015 – a marked contrast to the gloomy perspectives now facing debt-laden Portugal.
Poland's robust economic growth is due in large part to companies such as Kler, a furniture maker, which has seen its exports double to 20 per cent of output in the last two years. Domestic sales rose by 10 per cent in 2011.
"I think people are worried about the economy, but they don't seem to have changed their lifestyle plans," says Andrzej Marek, the company's CEO.
Poland's economy, the largest of the EU's new members, is proving to be more resilient to external shocks than the rest of the bloc. Unlike small and open countries such as the Czech Republic or Hungary, where exports account for about 80 per cent of GDP and which are therefore badly affected by slumps in western Europe, exports only account for about 40 per cent of Poland's output.
The prognosis for next year is GDP growth of 3.2 per cent, according to the central bank – better than almost everywhere else in the EU.
That is not to say there are no worries. New car registrations in October fell by 16 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to the Samar research institute. But the hope is that Poland's economy will be able to resist a wider downturn.
At IKEA on the outskirts of Warsaw, Marzena is loading shelves into the back of her car with which she plans to upgrade the beauty parlour that she runs.
"We are investing in our business because I just don't believe that it will be as bad as it was in 2009," she says.