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Welcome to the inquiry from the BBC World Service with me, Tanya Beckett.

One question, four expert witnesses and an answer.

In February, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, posted a video on X,

celebrating figures that marked a symbolic moment in the country's membership of the European Union.

Can you guess what this is?

This is a chart from the latest international monetary fund report.

Poland has overtaken Spain in income per capita. We're now in the European economic elites and we're winning against Spain. Famos.

Data from the international monetary fund showed that the average person in Poland had slightly more spending power than the average person in the EU's fourth largest economy, Spain.

The measure is one sign that shows how an economy is performing. In this case, it shows that Poland has been growing more consistently than many of its European neighbours.

In September 2025, the country's economy passed the trillion dollar mark, placing it amongst an elite group of just 20 nations worldwide.

Poland's journey to this point has been nothing short of remarkable. This week on

the inquiry, we're asking, why is Poland's economy booming? Part one, Poland's economic miracle.

My name is Pablo Bogowski. I'm a lecturer in economics at the University College London.

Our first expert witness takes us back to a four-decade stretch between the mid-1940s to 1989, when Poland was in the grip of communism.

The country's commercial activity was entirely directed and controlled by the government.

So first of all, key decisions in the economy, I mean, not even key decisions,

daily operations were decided not by the markets, but rather they were determined by so-called

essential planners.

First of all, what should be producing, what quantities and

where. Also at the same time for what price this product should be sold. So it's not just the

prices of goods, but also wages. And one implication of this was, of course, that there was no

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