ABSTRACT
The Polish economy lagged far behind the income and productivity levels of all Western European countries. This was reflected in a number of ways including examples of low consumption of consumer durables, few telephones, few of which worked properly, and few private cars. The economy was predominantly state owned and to a far greater degree than any other country in Eastern Europe barring the Former Soviet Union. In fact almost 100% of all Polish industry and commerce was state owned with around 3000 state enterprises. During 1990, Poland continued to stumble into deep recession largely as a consequence of the government’s attempts to create a free market economy from nothing, assisted by aid from the IMF, US government and the European Community. The shipping sector was particularly adept at the latter two functions in that it commonly traded on the international market place, earning hard currency on the crosstrades in the process.
