In these difficult days, the attention of all of us is focused on the areas of the country affected by the flood. We stand in solidarity with those affected and support all those fighting against the elements.

The regional Statistical Offices and their field offices are located in the flooded areas. We are working to ensure the safety of staff and their families, to safeguard property and information resources and to maintain the continuity of statistical work. We make every effort to deliver high quality official statistics on time despite the extremely difficult situation.

In fulfilling our duties, we take into account the plight of our respondents in endangered areas, residents and businesses, for whom the priority is now to save lives and protect property.

The state of flooding over a large area of the country means that we are observing or anticipating difficulties in carrying out surveys and studies based on information obtained from reporters. The situation is changing dynamically and varies spatially.

• In the case of the current economic and price surveys conducted in September (e.g. those based on the monthly business activity report, the retail and producer price observations and the business cycle survey), the source data have mostly already been acquired and we do not anticipate a threat to the publication of the results this month. On the other hand, we expect that in October there will be problems in obtaining data from entities in flooded areas and in collecting information from all price quotation points in these areas (some of them have been closed or even destroyed). We will monitor the situation on an ongoing basis and, if necessary, implement appropriate organisational and methodological solutions to maintain high data completeness and quality.
• We are observing difficulties in obtaining data in flood-affected areas as part of ongoing social surveys: Household Budget Survey (BBGD), Labour Force Survey (LFS-BAEL) and Transport Mobility Survey. As the flood wave moves, the situation changes dynamically. Here, too, we monitor the situation and introduce appropriate organisational and methodological solutions. In the case of the EU-SILC survey, the survey collection phase has already been completed and we do not foresee any threats to the development of the results of this survey.
• Difficulties are also observed in the survey of tourist accommodation and its use - about 30% of businesses in flooded areas have not reported and obtaining data from them will be difficult. The flood also disrupted, among other things, the survey Non-resident Travel to Poland. Movement of vehicles and persons at the border of Poland with EU countries: planned surveys at the crossings in the Lower Silesian and Silesian Voivodeships have been cancelled and are planned to be carried out at a later date.
• We also expect problems with obtaining data from entities subject to the reporting obligation in the area of surveying issued building permits and effects of construction activity, which are voivodship and city offices, and district offices (in the area of issued building permits), as well as poviat and voivodship building supervision offices (in the area of commenced and completed constructions). There may be situations in which the particularly affected units, by the time the next edition of the monthly and quarterly surveys starts, will not be functioning normally, will not have the documents necessary for the preparation of statistical data (e.g. because they have been flooded or destroyed) or for other reasons will not be able to complete the statistical forms.

For most of the other surveys, we currently see no risks that could affect the timing or quality of the results. Detailed information on the impact of flooding on individual surveys will be provided with the publication of the relevant resulting data.

At the same time, we are taking steps to provide information on how the natural disaster has affected the socio-economic situation of the country. We plan to include the flood-related aspect in the business cycle survey, among others. In the case of the retail price survey, we will analyse the impact of supply and demand factors on price movements.