We speak to Leszek Balcerowicz, 20 years after the radical economic plan which tried to change a command economy into a free market.
Report by Slawek Szefs
After 45 post-war years of central planning and communist (mis)management, Poland’s economy was completely unsuited to fit into a capitalist world market. It inherited hyper inflation, low productivity and social discontent.
A commission of experts under Professor Leszek Balcerowicz drafted eleven acts to help extricate the country from economic inertia. This packet of reforms became known as the Balcerowicz Plan, later described by experts and society alike as "shock therapy economics".
We speak to the former finance minister and head of Poland’s National Bank about his memories of that tumultuous time.