The year 2022 has not been easy for Polish companies. There have been a number of factors that have made doing business difficult in recent months: the war in Ukraine and broken supply chains, rising inflation, rising energy prices.

According to a survey conducted by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE), 35 per cent of entrepreneurs believe that the financial situation of their companies will be average in 2023, while 22 per cent of entrepreneurs anticipate that it will be bad or very bad. An optimistic outlook on the future is held by 26 per cent of the surveyed entrepreneurs, who believe that their financial situation will be good or very good.

On the other hand, according to a BIG InfoMonitor survey from Q4 2022, 23 per cent of representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises declared that there was a real risk of business liquidation. The current and future financial health of businesses is undoubtedly affected by the issue of counterparty insolvency. The survey shows that 36 per cent of the companies surveyed feared that one of their counterparties would become insolvent.

Data from BIG InfoMonitor shows that although the number of debtors decreased by 2.1 per cent year-on-year, the amount of arrears increased by 3.3 per cent to reach PLN 39.6 billion in September 2022.

The December survey of the Monthly Indicator of the Economy (MIK) shows that in the next three months, more than 75 per cent of entrepreneurs are planning to maintain employment levels, 16 per cent to decrease, and 7 per cent to increase. The latest MIK survey indicates that 68 per cent of businesses are planning to maintain current employee pay levels and 29 per cent are planning to increase wages. Employers’ plans to raise wage levels are affected by the change in the minimum wage from January 2023, which will also translate into other actions they take.

The MIK’s analysis for the whole of 2022 shows that the biggest barriers to business were economic uncertainty, rising energy prices and high employee costs. All indications are that these will also be the barriers hindering businesses in 2023.

Adrian Andrzejewski