1994: Poland's Economy five Years after the Implementation of a Market Economy

If one concerns oneself in Poland’s economic changes after escaping from the influence of the Soviet Empire in the Year 1989, especially one assumption made by several experts at this time seems to be rather naïve to us in today’s perspective: It is the assumption that the economic level of Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe would catch up with the one of other countries, such as France or even Germany within only a few years, if the changes and reforms are made in the way they should. Some experts assumed that this duration is as low as three years. 1 Today we know that it is not so easy to catch up for several reasons, although some of those countries have had a amazing development and still have an economic growth that is far above the one of the so-called “Old European countries”, the EU-15. What I want to research at this point is how the situation after the short time given by the expert’s forecasts really was. I therefore take the situation in 1994, which makes, if compared to the first assumptions, a rather “tolerant” period of five years from 1989.