According to the chief economist of the Polish Development Fund (PFR) Paweł Dobrowolski, Poland’s economic activity dynamics is high, and it came out of the pandemic in a very good condition. Also, the fundamental phenomena that took place in our economy are sustaining its growth.

“Two phenomena are currently important in Europe. One concerns what will happen in Europe over several quarters, maybe years, and the other, short-term, is related to what will happen in the energy market over the next few months, especially in January. “Different countries have different degrees of protection against the coming winter. Poland is in such a good situation that we have small but full storage facilities, we have our own extraction, and we also have the possibility to secure gas supplies from other sources, because we have a gas port and will soon have Baltic Pipe”, said Dobrowolski.

The expert added that Germany is in a worse situation as it is the largest consumer of gas used to produce electricity, while at the same time it does not have a single gas port, so its possibilities to obtain gas from other directions than Russia are limited.

“In addition to Germany, countries that are close to Russia and landlocked should be concerned: Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic. In the case of Slovakia, Poland has recently opened a gas connection, and this reduces the problem. But in general, anyway, most depends on whether this year’s winter will be harsh”, added PFR’s chief economist.

Dobrowolski pointed out that the households, which will not be affected by possible shutdowns, have the least reason to worry, because if gas supplies are interrupted, it will be for industrial plants that use gas for production. In his view, the entire European economy is facing an overhaul that will consider higher energy costs, and this will happen at the level of both businesses and households, which will switch to reduced energy consumption.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński