High energy prices are the biggest obstacle to doing business

by   CIJ News iDesk III
2023-01-19   11:14
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High energy prices are currently the most acute obstacle to doing business in Poland, cited by 85% of companies, according to the "Barriers to Business" survey conducted by Grant Thornton.

While the past year has been full of unexpected events making it difficult for companies to operate, nothing has been as severe as the increase in energy prices. Despite regulatory actions limiting the scale of the increases, the cost of energy for businesses grew so fast that as many as 85% of medium and large companies surveyed by Grant Thornton cited it as a barrier to doing business (of which as many as 51% were companies for whom the barrier was 'very strong'). That's a figure 20 percentage points higher than a year ago and 30 higher than two years ago. Only in India is the group larger (86%). The average across the survey was 51%, according to the report.

Employers also point to high labor costs as a significant barrier to growth. This is declared by 82% of the surveyed heads of medium and large companies (of which 29% were those who considered this barrier 'very strong'). This result is 17 percentage points higher than a year ago. It's also the highest result among the 29 countries surveyed and much higher than the average for all countries, which was 56%.

The third strongest barrier for entrepreneurs in Poland is economic uncertainty, i.e. the inability to plan the future of companies with confidence - 74% of medium and large companies declared this, it indicated.

A consistently important barrier cited by entrepreneurs in our survey is bureaucracy. Some 49% of companies currently complain about it, with 17% considering this barrier 'very strong.' These are slightly lower percentages than in previous years, when it was a barrier for about 60% of entrepreneurs, the report reads.

The survey described in this report is conducted on behalf of Grant Thornton International as part of its International Business Report series. It is conducted annually among 10,000 owners or board members of medium and large businesses worldwide. In Poland, since 2020, the survey has been conducted using the CATI method (telephone interviews) by Biostat, annually among owners and board members of 100 medium and large enterprises. The last edition of the survey was conducted in Q4 2022

Source: Grant Thornton and ISbnews