The Polish economy has been ranked joint-sixth in the world for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a table published by UK-based finance magazine, The Economist.
In its ranking of nation states which had handled the pandemic the best, Denmark, Slovenia and Sweden took the podium places with Norway and Chile making up the top five. Poland was placed in sixth alongside Ireland.
The magazine used five criteria when considering its rankings, the first of which was the country’s GDP change since the end of 2019, a key indicator of an economy’s general health. It noted however that in these figures could disproportionately affect economies which were heavily reliant on tourism due to social and travel restrictions implemented over the last two years.
Second on the list of criteria was an analysis of household incomes to evaluate how drastically families had been impacted financially by the pandemic, a factor that would not just reflect personal income but also government financial aid.
Other key factors used to determine the rankings were stock market performance, giving insight into the general health of capital markets; investment spending, which reflects the optimism with which businesses in a particular country are looking to the future; and debt levels, which could hint at tax hikes and austerity measures in the near future.
Using these indexes, The Economist analyzed economic data from 23 countries.
Poland’s GDP growth in the chosen period amounted to 3.1 percent; income growth per capita was 3.3 percent and stock prices increased by 25.4 percent. Investment spending dropped by 7.1 percent, and the state debt reached 5 percent of GDP.
By contrast, the countries that ranked the worst included Japan, which has experienced a 1.9 percent contraction in its economy; the United Kingdom, with a 2.1 percent economic downturn; and the Spanish economy, languishing in last with a crippling 6.6 percent economic hit.
