Sub-indexes in a tailspin

The first quarter of 2013 was not a profitable one for the Warsaw stock exchange. For the WIG20 these were the worst three months for over two years. The situation is somewhat perplexing because investors have been showing a lot of interest in buying shares across the Atlantic and in Western Europe. The macro-economic data for the country provides some explanation, as this shows that we have been scraping the bottom of the economic cycle since Q4 2012. Perhaps investors had been counting on a reprise of the situation in 2009, when the Polish economy pleasantly surprised us, earning it the title of Europe's "Green Island". But at the time we had a defence mechanism in the form of a weak złoty propping up exports. This is why the ?2013 slowdown, with a relatively strong złoty, is more painful and has already translated into higher unemployment (14.5 pct) and weaker company results (business profits in 2012 decreased by 21 pct). In addition, a question mark has arisen over the reaction