Poland’s transformation into a market economy began two decades ago, when it became apparent that the central planning system had lost the competition with the western-style market.

In 1989, Poland was in a desperate economic condition, with economic disintegration and social tensions more advanced than elsewhere in the Soviet empire. The country was not servicing its external debt, near-hyperinflation undermined confidence, the economy was producing wrong products, workers had the wrong skills, and exports needed a radical redirection from east to west.