Shock to the system

Back in February, during a fairly mild winter, the economic data that was released was far from the disaster that some had expected and, together with the hope that inflation would soon be tamed, the Warsaw Stock Exchange surged. Bourses across Europe were even breaking their own historic highs every few days, even though their domestic economies were in worse shape than that of the US. Investors’ moods were undoubtedly buoyed by the good news emanating from the markets for raw materials and energy – and, in particular, natural gas, which drives the largest economy in Europe, Germany. In addition to this, the investor optimism was also being fuelled by the huge profits being made by power generation companies, which have significant listings in Europe. China made its own contribution to this rosy picture by opening up its economy. But by the end of February, the spectre of inflation had materialised once again and was met with strong commitments to fight it. Soon afterwards