When coming here, I saw many reminders of Poland’s successful transformation from what used to be a centrally planned economy into one that is market-driven. A transformation of this kind is anything but easy as can be seen not only in Poland, but also in many other transforming countries in central and eastern Europe.
All of these countries experienced more or less severe initial recessions in the transformation process during the early to mid-1990s, with per capita GDP dropping below levels witnessed during the era of central planning. Poland, however, was able to benefit rather quickly from the introduction of market mechanisms into its economy.