with you today in the morning with the viewers of Poland ON AIR. My name is Tomasz Bardziłowski. I'm the CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and we have for you a presentation which talks about the Polish capital market, about the stock exchange, our results, our plans. After the presentation, which will take probably around 25- 30 minutes, we are open for your questions. Let me go to the first slide. A few words about Polish economy, which has been performing extremely well over the past years. It has been one of the strongest economies in the European Union for many years. Right now, it's the 6th largest economy in the EU and the 20th largest economy in the world.
What's important is the steady growth of GDP. This year, growth in GDP is forecast to be at 3.4%. Inflation, which is falling, at the moment it's already below 3%. The average for the year is expected around 3.7%. Our main macroeconomic risk is high fiscal deficit, which is exceeding 6% of GDP. However, the government debt level is still well below some of the other European countries at 60% of GDP. What's important is that the economy is relatively balanced in terms of current account. We don't have any major current account deficit.
Overall, the growth in the economy has been extremely strong, and as you can see here also in this chart in the upper right corner, Polish economy has reached 8% of EU average in terms of GDP per capita, which is a remarkable achievement starting many years ago in the nineties at well below 50%. The strong economy growth is something that we can be, of course, proud of. Let's go to next slide. However, what we also can point out that the development of capital market has been lagging the economy growth, especially in the last decade. Now the market capitalization of this Warsaw Stock Exchange to GDP is just 22%.
This is well below the EU average, which is over 60%. You can see here also on this chart that in Germany, the same ratio is at 47%. Over two times bigger compared to Poland. You see that in the past this ratio has been higher. It was 35% of GDP in 2014 and w e have this decline to 2022. Meaning that really the development of the Warsaw Stock Exchange has been lagging the development of the Polish economy. Of course, this is something that we want to change. This is something also that we view as a big opportunity.
One of the problems is a limited pool of domestic institutional capital in Poland. The size of pension fund assets to GDP is just 8%. The size of investment fund assets to GDP is 10%, so well below some other countries. In Germany, the size of mutual fund assets, investment fund assets to GDP is well over, it's closer to 80%. We have pension funds and they still represent over 40% of the free float of the stock exchange. Good news is that there's a new pension fund scheme called PPK, Employee Investment Plans. It has been set up a few years ago, and it's growing quite fast, although it's still quite small.
In terms of assets, it's only 30% of GDP. The older pension funds offered which really were the main driver behind the development of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, they are not really growing because they have to now transfer part of the asset to the social security system, to the Pillar One scheme. Mutual funds, which in Poland are called TFI, they are bigger, over PLN 400 billion, so close to EUR 100 billion. However, the problem is here that only they invest a small proportion of the assets into local equities.
There are many reasons for that, but I believe that once interest rates will be lower, they will reduce or start to reduce the bond portfolio and debt exposure and to increase the equity exposure. However, the big opportunity is related to retail investors. When you look at the household financial assets, Poland stands out as a country in which the households have one of the highest share of savings invested in cash and bank deposits. It's at 50% of the financial savings, and this compares to EU average of just 31%.
In some of the countries, this ratio is as low as 12 or 15%, in those countries when the capital market is most developed. Just by reducing this ratio from where it is right now, 52% in Poland, to the EU average of 31%, we could free up capital of well over EUR 150 billion, so much bigger than the current size of the free float on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and almost six times more than the current direct investments of retail investors in listed shares, which is just PLN 100 billion, so EUR 25 billion.
How to develop the market, in my opinion, this is a chart that have shown in our strategy presentation last year in November, the biggest is really to create and to revive domestic institutional investors, both domestic investors, both institutional and retail, i.e., further development of pension funds, investment funds, but also private market, i.e., private equity and VC capital. In terms of how to attract more involved investors, it's mainly through better and more attractive product offering, financial education, but also tax incentives. Once we have this strong domestic pool of capital, we will attract more IPOs with the strong ecosystem of investment firms and with good corporate governance, high standards and also ESG and balanced regulation.
I think once we have it all, definitely, we will be more interesting for foreign investors, including retail investors from Europe and from Germany, hopefully. Now let me tell you a few highlights about the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and then I will talk also about our results. We are, I'll say, not the first league, not a major exchange in Europe. Number 6 after the biggest ones, including Deutsche Börse, Euronext, SIX, Nasdaq and BME. Our market cap is EUR 250 billion. However, we are by far the largest in Central Europe, over 50% bigger than Vienna Stock Exchange and also the smaller exchanges.
What's important is that we are a relatively liquid exchange. Our cash equity turnover, you will see on the next slide, the significant increase that we've seen this year is over three times bigger than on the next exchange in Central Europe and so-called velocity ratio, i.e., the share of turnover and turnover to our market cap is one of the highest in Europe at 45%. Actually, only one exchange is better than Warsaw in this respect, and this is Deutsche Börse. You see it in this column on the right. Deutsche Börse is at 48.6%, and Athens as well, I see.
In terms of cash equity turnover, we've seen a significant increase year- to- date of 45% year-on-year basis. Hopefully this higher liquidity will stay with us and will also help to boost the revenues of this Warsaw Stock Exchange. What we are really proud of and very happy is a very strong performance of our main indices year- to- date. Our main indices are all above 30% up and in dollar terms close even to 50% increase. Although despite this fantastic performance, the market doesn't really look so expensive, especially relative to other global markets.
On the chart on the right, you see the P/E ratio of MSCI Poland compared to MSCI World and MSCI Emerging Markets. Compared to MSCI Emerging Markets, it's still almost 30% discount, 27% discount on forward-looking P/E ratio. In terms of our valuation, Warsaw Stock Exchange, we are, we look inexpensive when you look at the P/E ratio, just 30%, 13 times P/E. Also at the discount in the valuation when you look at the EBITDA ratio, although we are paying one of the highest dividend within the group of global exchanges.
You can also see here that, when we look at the ROE versus price-to-book value metrics, we are also below the median, and one of the most attractively valued exchange in the world. Hopefully our ROE will continue to improve, which will justify a higher valuation. A few words about our strategy directions, which have been published in November last year. In the plan for three years, we want to focus on two pillars. First pillar is capital market development, and, of course, building shareholder value. However, we think that whatever is good for the capital market also should be good for Warsaw Stock Exchange.
It's many growth initiatives, talking to our stakeholders, to the Minister of Finance, to the regulator. Our main area of growth that we see is attracting retail investors, but also supporting new issues and supporting current issuers. What we want to offer is more value for the issuers from being a listed company. Financial education is also quite very high on our agenda, and we believe that we should also engage in activities aiming at increasing or enhancing capital markets in the whole Central European region. In terms of building shareholder value, we want to expand the portfolio of new products and indices.
Products which are very high on our agenda are exchange-traded funds, also new derivatives and bonds. Improving, strengthening sustainable development is something which also is quite important for us. We still see a lot of room to improve efficiency, also by enhancing synergies within the group. You'll see later on our cost-income ratio, which is relatively high. We want to accelerate our growth through partnership and we see a value, we see potential for M&As, for boosting growth from M&As especially given our strong cash position. But what's important, we will remain a company with attractive dividend policy, with the aim of increasing dividend per share. Here you see our financial ambitions. Just let me...
In terms of what we really focus on is what we control, i.e., the cost growth. We don't want the cost growth to increase more than 4%-6% on an annualized basis in the period between 2004 and 2027. As a result of the revenue growth that we see at around 6%-8%. We hope that this will result in double-digit EBITDA growth. Of course, this year, our revenue growth you will see is much higher. We also have some more room to accelerate with some investments and given a strong performance. We want to reduce our cost-income ratio.
It has been at 72% in 2023. We think it's too high, and we are aiming at 65% in 2027. Also, our ROE, we want to increase it to 18% from 15% in 2024. Speaking of financial results, when you look at this pie chart, our revenues are comprising from financial markets revenues, mainly cash equities. Cash equities are 1/5 of total revenues. We also own power exchange, and power exchange in the last twelve months represented 32% of total revenues. So you will see that we are very much dependent on trading.
Well over 60% of our revenues are dependent on trading, and our strategy is to lower the share of trading revenues, so we are less volatile and have a more stable revenue base. In terms of our year-to-date results, we are very happy to see very strong growth in revenues. In the first half, it was almost 16%. In the Q2 , 19%, driven by financial segment revenues, mainly increasing turnover in cash equities. However, we are also very happy to see a recovery in commodity market revenues in our power exchange. This was one of the biggest positive surprises for us this year.
At the beginning of the year, we guided for flat revenues in this segment, and in the first half, we have almost 11% growth. In terms of other revenues, we have a decline here. These are some of the non-core investments and their share in absolute value. In our strategy, we want to focus on core business rather than develop some non-core initiatives. The operating expenses in the first half, the growth was 6.7%. In the Q2 , 8%. Slightly above the range that we see for three years in our strategy.
However, this is, you know, justified by by high revenue growth, also some of the initiatives that we will talk on next slides. Our cost-income ratio, you will see that, has been reduced to 64% in the first half. We've already, you may say, achieved our 3-year plan. And as a positive result of high operating leverage, we've increased our EBITDA in the first half by well over 40%. On adjusted basis, 34%. In terms of net profit growth, it was similar growth, 40% on a reported basis and 35% on adjusted basis. You will see that we have a relatively high income from associates.
This is a 33% in the national depository company. In terms of operating expenses, our expenses grew, as I said, by 6.7% in the first half. The key part of our expenses are personnel costs. Here we saw over 10% growth in the first half and it accelerated in the Q2 . It was mainly related to employment growth, mainly in the IT segment. This is related to the fact that we are right now working on the launch of the new trading platform. Also, the increase in personnel costs is a result of increasing employee remuneration by average of 6%, which took place in October last year. Also, we increased the provision for annual bonuses.
On the other hand, you see that we have a good cost control in terms of external services, which were reduced by 2% in the first half. What you can see on this line chart that over last year in each quarter we managed to have a higher revenue growth than cost growth. Myself, I was appointed as a new CEO in the Q2 of last year, so this was for us a key objective, basically, to improve profitability and make sure that we have a good cost control and the cost growth is not higher than revenue growth.
As a result, we managed to increase our margins. The EBITDA margin went up within last year from 36% to 43% and reduce our cost-income ratio to closer or even below the target at 65%. You can see here our history of our net profit growth and especially the history of our dividend payment over the years since the IPO. We have never missed a dividend payment. Last year, our dividend was 3.15 PLN per share, which was 89% of earnings, even higher than our official policy of paying between 60%-80% of consolidated earnings as dividends. It was a 5% growth on year-on-year basis.
As I said, for us, the steady growth in dividend per share is extremely important part of our strategy. When you look at our CapEx, our CapEx grew significantly over last years, mainly as the work on the new trading platform accelerated. I believe that the CapEx should be peaking this year. Then once we will launch the new trading platform in October, in November this year, the CapEx going forward will should decline. On the other hand, the depreciation next year will grow as we will start to depreciate the new trading platform once.
In terms of our outlook for the coming two quarters in the second half of the year, we saw still very strong increases in equity turnover in July and in August, in the first half of August also. Also the same in commodity market when we had especially the gas segment is impressive with the growth of over 80% in this segment. On the other hand, we have declines in electricity trading in the Q2 . This is similar to what we saw in the previous quarters, in the first and second quarter .
Also it's worth adding that in the past there was an obligation to trade electricity on our power exchange. This obligation has been removed two years ago, but now we hear from the energy ministry that the obligation at least to trade a part of the output is likely to be reintroduced, which will help our revenues from the power exchange going forward. In terms of operating cost growth, we are guiding for a higher rate of growth in the second half of this year compared to the second quarter. This is mainly due to the intensification of the works of implementation of the new trading platform, WATS.
Also other IT systems that we will be launching as well as higher investments and expenses for capital market promotion. CapEx should stay at similar level as we saw in the first half. I think it's worth to mention a major initiative which may help to develop the capital market, especially attract the new retail investors. This initiative has been presented by the Ministry of Finance. I'm talking about the new investment account, personal investment account. It's Polish. In Polish it is,
Osobiste Konto Inwestycyjne ( OKI).
We believe it may be an important driver for growth of the capital market in Poland. Let me tell you a few words what this initiative is all about. It was presented a month ago by the Ministry of Finance. It's basically a voluntary savings scheme and investment account in which, when you invest, there are no tax on investments of up to PLN 100,000, roughly EUR 22,000. Above that amount there will be a low tax on assets.
Above that limit, it will be calculated as 19%, which is a current level of the capital gain tax times the yield on risk-free assets, which will be when we take the current data, it will be around 0.8% on the assets above PLN 100,000. You have higher flexibility in terms of investments. There will be no limits and ability to withdraw funds at any time. You also will be able to invest in any assets admitted to trading or to investment funds and up to PLN 25,000 zloty in deposits or deposit bank deposits or treasury bonds.
According to Ministry of Finance, within 3 years, the value of assets on the new personal investment account may reach PLN 100 billion. Importantly, important to say that this account has been modeled based on the Swedish account ISK. Here on the charts you see the development of those Swedish accounts. Right now, it's extremely popular in Sweden. Over 40% of adult population owns an ISK. Total value of assets is close to EUR 180 billion. A really impressive amount. Sweden is by far the most developed capital market in Europe. We hope that with the new account similar to Swedish account Poland and also may increase the...
Develop the capital market and the current share of the Warsaw Exchange capitalization to GDP at only 20% will be increasing. That's really our presentation. As I said, we managed to do it within 30 minutes, so we have a time right now for Q&A, and I'm happy to answer any other questions.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Tomasz, for the insightful presentation. To keep the conversation engaging, I'd kindly like to ask you to post your question via the audio line, but you can of course, also, use the chat. We received already some questions from the chat. First question would be: What do you consider the main reason for the high discount at which the Warsaw Stock Exchange is trading versus Western peers, like for example, Deutsche Börse?
Thank you for this question. Yes, there's a discount as we saw in the chart. I think that you can explain it, there are many possible explanations. This is a discount related to just higher interest rates in Poland. Our main rate is 5%, much higher than the Eurozone. Second, when you look at our main index, it's comprised of a banking sector and also of utilities companies which tend to trade at lower multiples.
Speaking about Warsaw Stock Exchange, one of the reasons for the discount here may be related to the fact that a big share of our revenues are trading-oriented, so we are a bit more volatile, for example, than Deutsche Börse, which has only 7% share of equity trading revenues. That said, I also think that this is an opportunity which means that we can continue to outperform other markets so that to reduce this valuation gap.
Thank you so much. We received another question, and I think we already touched upon it, regarding OKI. Maybe you can say that again to the audience. Could you elaborate on the planned OKI investment account? There have been articles in German media about it. When is it supposed to be introduced? As I understood, it will only be available for Polish nationals.
Yes. As we discussed, the OKI account. The plan is for the OKI account to be introduced by mid next year. I believe that, because while we didn't have such account in Poland, there were schemes with some tax allowance, but there were many retirement savings schemes. For many years there was a debate in Poland that the taxation of capital gains is less attractive or than the taxation of real estate investments. You pay 90% capital gains tax on 90% dividend tax on your dividends when you invest in.
You have to pay it regardless of the duration of your investments. When you invest into real estate, after five years, when you sell after five years, there's no tax, and the rental income is taxed at between 8%-12%, depending on the income. Now we have an account which looks as a simple solution, and I think it will attract lots of new investors. As we understand from what was already presented by the Ministry of Finance, each person could have as many OKI accounts as they want. You can have an OKI account at your bank and in bank. Then have a bank deposit there.
You can have an OKI account at a mutual fund. We believe that most accounts will be held by the brokerage houses, by the brokers.
Thank you so much, Tomasz. To keep the conversation engaging, again, you can ask a question now. To do so, just press the Raise Your Hand button. We received another question from the chat. As the Warsaw Stock Exchange are considering the introduction of semi-annual or quarterly dividends, are you considering that?
Can you repeat the question?
Are you considering the introduction of semi-annual or quarterly dividends?
Yeah. That's a very good question. Actually a year ago we said that we'll be thinking about that. However, due to some issues related to the Polish corporate code, it's not that simple. That's why we wanted to have a product which will listed on the exchange, which will pay a quarterly dividend. We are very happy that it was few weeks ago, we will have a first ETF which is paying a quarterly dividend, quarterly payment. This ETF that you can buy on the Warsaw Stock Exchange is investing in over 50 highest dividend-paying companies, including Warsaw Stock Exchange. The plan is that it will gather dividends.
In Poland, almost all companies pay dividends on annual basis, but then it will pay those dividends on quarterly basis starting from next year. You can check the ticker and check with your broker the ticker of this and check for some more information. As I said, it is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It actually had its first listing two weeks ago and already gathered a remarkable asset under management just in few days.
Thank you. What measures is the stock exchange taking to improve transparency and corporate governance among listed companies?
Thank you for this question. Yes, it's extremely important that we have a high corporate governance standard and good transparency in terms of, especially in mid- and small-cap segments. What we have and on regular basis we update is the code of best corporate governance standards. There are a couple of dozens of various principles there. The companies, they have to, as we say, comply or explain. If you don't comply with all those standards listed there, you have to explain why.
Your investor shareholders, including independent board members that, as a listed company you have to have in your board, should make sure that you are complying or in a reasonable way explaining why you don't comply with the best standards. In terms of transparency, I think that we also, one of the principles is that, for example, you should have your financial statements also in English. They should be available to foreign investors. You should organize meetings with investors on regular basis.
As a part of our support to the mid and small caps segment, for example, we are paying for writing analytical reports for brokers. Those reports are about small and medium cap size companies right now. In this program, we have 65 companies. Those reports are freely available, and they are in English as well, so you can check them on regular basis. We have a professional coverage of many small cap invest stocks.
Great. What initiatives are in place to bring small and medium-sized enterprises closer to the capital market?
For us, it's very important of course that we have a steady flow of IPOs both of large and small companies. We have an alternative market, NewConnect, on which we list well over 300 companies. There's at least every year 10 or more companies listed. What we do to attract IPOs, this year, for example, we have introduced a new program, GPW IPO Academy, in which we organize special sessions for companies which consider IPO listing sessions with industry experts.
It's a six months program in which they can learn about how to prepare for an IPO, how to organize investor relations, and all what you need to know before you become a public company. We are very happy because just within few weeks after announcement of the new program, we have all the seats filled, so there are no more free spaces for the first edition. We have a program in which we organize meetings between private equity companies and local brokers and institutional investors. We also present companies which consider IPO at very early stage to local brokers. In terms of IPOs, we were very happy with this year companies which had IPO this year.
In January, we had IPO of a healthcare company, a healthcare diagnostic company, Diagnostyka. It was a medium-sized IPO, for us, quite big, over EUR 400 million. What's most important, the company's share price doubled since the IPO, so all the investors should be very happy. In June, we had an IPO of a clothing manufacturer, but a specific clothing manufacturer, a company which is producing clothing and for the army. It was around EUR 70 million. The IPO also very successful, and the share price also has a quite positive performance. We are very happy because investors who invest in Polish IPOs, they should feel satisfied with the investments, especially this year.
Great. What strategies is the stock exchange pursuing to attract international investors? How do you intend to further increase foreign investments in the Polish capital market?
Yes. Thank you for this question. Of course, you know, our today's event is one of the examples of what we do. On regular basis, we meet in conferences on roadshows with investors and having a roadshow in London this month. Next month we are going to New York, and many Polish companies are having such conferences on a regular basis. Right now we see that participation of international investors is quite high. In the Warsaw Stock Exchange, in trading it's 70% of trading is done by international investors. It's also very important for us to attract more retail Polish investors, especially retail.
One of the initiatives that we are working on and here consulting with the regulator is to make Polish ETFs available on other exchanges. For this, there's a proposal to change the regulation so Polish ETFs are UCITS. Because for the time being, they are not. They don't fill the criteria of being UCITS compliant. For a retail investor from Germany, it's not easy to invest in such products.
Thank you so much, Tomasz. I think that was the last question, so we're coming now to an end of today's roundtable. Thanks again to our media partners, wallstreet:online and SunView. On behalf of Airtime, I wish you a beautiful day. I hope to see you in another roundtable. I hand over to you now, Tomasz, for some final remarks, and I hope to see you in two years.
Yes. Thank you much. It was a pleasure. Thank you once again for the invitation. Let me know when there will be a next opportunity. I'll be very much willing to help you. Thank you very much.