Investments have been an element of political campaigns for years: almost a decade ago, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced an increase in the investment rate to 20-25% in the Strategy for Responsible Development. (we only have 17%, one of the lowest rates in the EU).
This topic has gained importance recently, after Prime Minister Donald Tusk's famous conference at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, where he announced that investments in Poland in 2026 will increase by nearly 10%. He added that this would be a year of economic “turbo acceleration”, despite geopolitical uncertainty and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. Andrzej Domański, Minister of Finance and Economy, declared that the investment dynamics may reach up to 10-11%.
This would mean a significant acceleration compared to the result in 2025, when the investment growth amounted to 4%. Although in nominal terms the expenditure was record-breaking and the dynamics was clearly better than the 0.9% decline. in 2024, this result was not impressive, considering the bold announcements made by the Prime Minister and Minister a year ago. In February 2025, they also announced a large revival in investments on the WSE, but data for the last quarter of 2025 indicated a slowdown in investment dynamics, which may be partly due to the transfer of some expenses (e.g. armaments) to 2026. Last year, the scope of private investments also left us unsatisfied, while public investments fared better.
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Central Statistical Office
“What are the current expectations regarding the level of investment of your company in 2026 in relation to investments made in 2025?” – asked the Central Statistical Office in its economic situation survey. The query also covered such issues as: type of investment, barriers and the impact of the external environment on the willingness to make new expenditures.
These companies will invest
“Company investments are clearly accelerating in 2026. Compared to plans for 2025, more companies announce an increase in expenditure both in the processing sector and in the transport and warehousing sectors,” wrote PKO BP economists after analyzing the Central Statistical Office data.
They added that this trend is consistent with the expected investment revival in the economy. “That's it processing (a sector responsible for approximately 30 percent of national investments) is to be its main driving force. As much as 78 percent companies from this sector plan to allocate funds for machines and technical devices, which suggests that the key investment areas are automation, defense and energy transformation,” wrote PKO BP economists.
They indicated that almost half of enterprises from the transport and storage sector intend to invest in means of transport. This may be the result of continued public transport modernization programs. Funds coming from the KPO provide additional support for the entire process.
These are the main barriers to investing
They added that however, in other sectors, especially trade, the willingness to invest remains low. “Companies still feel macroeconomic uncertainty – this factor is indicated as a barrier by 1/3 of enterprises in general. The most important obstacle is still the effects of high inflation: 1/2 of companies indicate high costs as the main investment barrier,” they noted.
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Central Statistical Office
“The relatively low percentage of companies planning investments, combined with a significant increase in cost estimates, suggests that the investment recovery will most likely be concentrated primarily in large enterprises,” PKO BP economists said. At the end of January, they forecast that this year the investment dynamics in Poland will accelerate to up to 12%. year to year.
