Sixty-one percent of Polish companies have been granted some form of financial support in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is slightly more than the European Union average of 56 percent, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has reported.

On Tuesday, EIB released the results of its latest survey on investments by Polish companies in 2021.

EIB wrote that the financial support for Polish companies from the state was mainly in the form of subsidies that firms did not need to repay. “Almost half of the firms in Poland (48 percent) report that they received such support in response to Covid-19, while a fifth (21 percent) benefited from deferral of payments,” the report read.

“Despite objective difficulties, investment sentiment among Polish firms has improved, as 80 percent of them expect to see an increase in their investments,” Teresa Czerwinska, the deputy EIB CEO, told PAP.

“Covid-19 also had an impact on some firm’s investment plans, with a third (32 percent) reporting a downward revision of their investment plans and only 3 percent reporting an upward revision,” EIB’s report read. The authors of the report pointed out that, however, as a short-term response, 35 percent of Polish companies invested in digitalisation.

Nevertheless, the pandemic still left its mark on Polish firms, as 14 percent of them increased their debt level in 2021, and 42 percent recorded a drop in sales, while only 22 percent managed to increase them.

Bank analysts also noticed that compared to the 2020 survey results, investment in fixed assets had increased and only 8 percent of Polish enterprises reported difficulties in having access to financing.