Record-breaking results for PZU and stabilization of public finances in 2025

The past fiscal year proved to be a breakthrough for Poland's largest insurer. The PZU Group generated a record net profit of PLN 6.7 billion, representing dynamic growth of 25.4 percent year-on-year. Gross insurance revenue exceeded the PLN 30 billion barrier for the first time in history, reaching PLN 30.9 billion. Despite these impressive annual figures, the fourth quarter of 2025 brought a slight drop in net profit to PLN 1.47 billion, which missed market consensus and led to a temporary devaluation of the company's shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. President Bogdan Benczak, however, announced the payment of an attractive dividend, emphasizing the group's strong capital position and high return on equity (aROE) at the level of 20.7 percent. In the macroeconomic sphere, optimistic signals are emerging regarding the state of public finances. Analyses by economists at Pekao bank suggest that the public finance sector deficit in 2025 decreased significantly, likely reaching a level of around 6.0 percent of GDP. This is a result significantly better than earlier assumptions by the Ministry of Finance and market forecasts, which predicted a deepening of the fiscal imbalance. The budget deficit being lower than planned and higher VAT revenues in December are seen as a good signal for economic prospects in 2026, suggesting that the peak of budgetary difficulties occurred in 2024. Poland has been struggling with the excessive deficit procedure for years, which forces successive governments to maintain fiscal discipline. The reform of local government financing and changes to the tax system have significantly impacted the structure of state budget revenues in recent years. Sentiment in capital markets is mixed. Although the Warsaw stock exchange recently celebrated historic highs for the WIG index, the end of February brought nervousness. Investors cautiously received the report from technology giant Nvidia, which became an impulse for a correction on the Nasdaq and S&P 500. On the domestic market, the energy sector (WIG-Energia rose by 25 percent since the start of the year) and the construction sector continue strong gains. At the same time, the European Central Bank reported a loss for 2025 amounting to 1.25 billion euros, which is, however, a result much better than the record loss from the previous year. „To był wyjątkowy rok. Pełen wyzwań. Dzięki zespołowej pracy byliśmy jednak w stanie osiągnąć rekordowe wyniki.” (It was an exceptional year. Full of challenges. Thanks to teamwork, however, we were able to achieve record results.) — Bogdan Benczak In the banking sector, mBank boasted a record net profit, exceeding previous achievements thanks to a high net interest income result. Meanwhile, the real estate market recorded a record value of granted housing loans, exceeding PLN 103 billion, despite a falling number of active contracts, resulting from overpayments and restructuring processes for Swiss franc loans.