Tadeusz Białek, president of the Polish Bank Association (ZBP), told a savings and investment press conference on Tuesday that he had no “good news when it comes to the issue of saving and investing by Polish households."

He explained that only between 54% and 55% of the Polish public had any savings, ranking the country second to bottom of the EU table, beating only Romania.

Countries in the region placing far ahead of Poland include Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Hungary, Białek said, as well as the leader of Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic.

Of those Poles who do have savings, the largest group (28%) is made up of those with more than five months’ income in reserve, though Białek said this was relatively little compared to other EU member states.

The ZBP chief attributed the poor performance to a number of factors, including "the relatively high percentage of Poles who do not have savings, the low percentage of Poles saving for retirement, the low and, currently negative, gross savings rate, which, compared to other European countries, has a high growth potential, the passive nature of Poles’ investment strategy and the relatively high level of risk aversion, resulting in a low percentage of Poles havingwith experience in purchasing investment products."

The apparent reluctance to save is in contrast to Poles’ increasing affluence, with the total of household assets in the country standing at over 2.8 trillion złoty, or 658 billion euro.

Poles keep their assets chiefly either in bank deposits or in cash, Białek said.

He went on to say that Polish people generally do not invest in capital markets and that there is very little systematic long-term saving.

"The nature of Poles’ investing is passive, which is linked to athe low level of education, which does not encourage too much risk-taking," Bialek said, adding: "We want to work intensively to raise the level of Poles’ financial education."