The trends of last year have continued

źródło: Rzeczpospolita

Tomasz Ochrymowicz, Deloitte

źródło: Rzeczpospolita

źródło: Rzeczpospolita

źródło: Rzeczpospolita

źródło: Rzeczpospolita

Minimal growth in revenues, widely diverging growth rates depending on country and industry.

Tomasz Ochrymowicz, Deloitte

In 2014, the majority of CE countries saw an increase in the rate of their economic growth. However, this did not translate directly into an increase in the average revenues of the region's 500 largest businesses. The 2015 CE Top 500 ranking shows that the trends of last year have continued: a minimal growth in median revenues of 0.3 per cent when denominated in euros (a far cry from the 10 to 11 per cent revenue growth levels that the markets were seeing three or four years ago) and widely diverging growth rates depending on country and industry. While some industries and countries continued to grow, the companies from energy and resources sectors recorded dramatic revenue decline.

These revenue growth rates are low considering the macroeconomic situation of the region. 2014 was a moderately successful year in terms of CE's economic growth, as seen in the GDP of Hungary (up by 3.6 per cent), Poland (3.4 per cent) and Romania (2.8 per cent). The Czech Republic and Slovakia posted GDP increases of 2.0 per cent (up from a negative value in 2013) and 2.4 per cent respectively.

Changes in GDP were, to a great extent, a result of an increase in exports to Western Europe. The 2014 data further shows that increasing demand, mainly for consumer goods, on the domestic market (up by 4.9 per cent in Poland, for example) played an equally important role in improving in the region's overall...