Main hurdles for doing business in Poland in April 2025.

Remembering the days when one of the key factors to invest in Poland were the cheap(er) labor costs? 

Today, the survey shows that the biggest headache when running a business in Poland are… HIGH LABOR COSTS! 

According to a survey by the Polski Instytut Ekonomiczny, the biggest hurdles for companies in April 2025 were:

💰 High labor costs (69%)

📉 Economic uncertainty (60%)

🧑‍🔧 Lack of available workers (45%)

💸 Payment bottlenecks (44%)

📈 Rising financing costs (34%)

Behind the figures, our short conclusions are:

➤ Double-digit salary growth that we have experienced during the last few years is not sustainable in a longer run. However, since last December the annual salary growth has been below 10%, and in February the growth was “ONLY” 7.9%

➤ Economic uncertainty - despite high growth figures (GDP growth forecasts 3,5-4% for this year), there are some clouds in the horizon - for example export to Germany fell by 4.9% during Jan-Feb and Chinese companies are taking market share in Poland and in Europe from Polish producers. Several sectors are reporting troubles, including construction, furniture and transport that are all big employers. Plus geopolitics and Trump on the top.

➤ Lack of workers - in general the situation in the labor market is much easier than 2-3 years ago, but some sectors lack staff and this is reflected in the salaries. But, imagine when the war ends and 50% of Ukrainian workers return to home - it means almost half a million people gone from the labor pool. 

➤ Payment bottlenecks - recently we have seen reports of payment delays for example in construction and retail sectors, but it is a topic for us to dig deeper. 

➤ Rising financing costs - well, the Polish reference rate has been unchanged for a long time at 5,75%, making money expensive locally. Once we get rid of high inflation (currently at 5%), we can expect even a fast decline in interest rates. Maybe still this year. 

However, there are also some good news:

🔋 Fewer firms are struggling with energy prices (down to 51%)

📦 And product shortages are becoming less of an issue (17%)

Also, the recent weakening of Polish Zloty can be seen as a positive news for export industry and global service centers.