Out with the old, in with the new?

The rapid transformation to a more market oriented economy after 1989 has brought about profound restructuring of the Polish economy. The implementation of shock therapy in 1990 resulted in a dramatic fall in industrial production of 25 per cent and a sharp increase in unemployment to 11.8 per cent in 1991. ¹ By 1998, however, Poland was regarded as the ‘tiger economy’ of Eastern and Central Europe (ECE). The 6.1 per cent growth rate of the Polish economy was significantly ahead of those of comparable economies such as Hungary (1.3 per cent) and the Czech Republic (3.9 per cent) (EBRD 1998). The effects of this rapid growth, however, have been unevenly spread and accompanied by an increase in poverty and marked disparities in income and wealth, differentiated by class, gender, generation and geography.