Indicators of social mood used in our research include evaluations of and forecasts for Poland’s economy and politics, respondents’ workplaces and their own household finances. In order to express the full dynamic of changes in social mood, this quarterly summary is presented in the form of mean assessments on a five-point scale from -2 to +2.

In the first quarter of 2017 evaluations of the political situation can be said to be slightly worse than in the previous quarter. This applies to January and March in particular. Forecasts for the development of the political situation in Poland, while better than its current assessment and similar to the previous quarter’s forecasts, are generally not optimistic.

For many months evaluations of the current economic situation have been on the plus side and have remained at practically the same level. However, compared to last quarter, there has been a slight improvement in forecasts. This applies to March in particular and is a direct effect of an increase in number of those who expect the economic situation in Poland to be stable over the next year, with a corresponding decrease in number of those who expect it to get worse.

When it comes to the condition of respondents’ household finances, evaluations in the first quarter of 2017 have generally been positive and are close to those of last quarter. An exception was February, when the rating was the lowest since July 2016. Mean values for forecasts about the condition of respondents’ household finances are also close to those of last quarter, with a value not far above zero. This is a result of the majority of respondents anticipating that the condition of their household finances will remain stable over the coming year.

During the first quarter of 2017 assessments of the situation in respondents’ workplaces have been very slightly worse, while still remaining decidedly positive and similar to those noted in the last quarter of 2016. As in previous months, most working people anticipate a stable situation in their places of work. This results in lower mean values for forecasts than for assessments of the current situation.