Stability of the Polish Financial Systems in 1993-2001. Selected Problems.

Poland is one of the few emerging countries (emerging markets) not yet affected by a financial crisis. In spite of the still ongoing transformation and the many imperfections at both the macro and micro level as a consequence of this process, the Polish economy has shown considerable resilience to financial crises in other countries (including the Brazilian, Asian and Russian ones). What followed was only a slowdown in growth, without any significant perturbations to the economy. The question arises to what extent this resilience was influenced by appropriate government moves or favourable external conditions, and to what extent it was due to an efficient, -healthy, financial system in Poland. The aim of the study is therefore to examine whether the Polish financial system with particular emphasis on the banking system is characterised by the micro- and macroeconomic conditions necessary for the system to be considered stable. In other words, the aim is to answer the question of whether the evolution of the financial system in our country has proceeded in the right direction, from the point of view of stability. In an attempt to answer this question, we have used a set of indicators proposed by us in an earlier study. These indicators, relating to both macro and micro scales, were selected on the basis of measures of stability most commonly found in economic practice and literature . The indicators developed on the basis of information concerning the Polish economy are presented in Tables 2.4. and Figure 1. The analysis assumed the period from 1993, one of the most difficult years of the Polish transformation.