The move came after central bank chief Adam Glapiński told a conference a day earlier that the time was coming for “a monetary adjustment.”
The National Bank of Poland's (NBP) monetary council pushed the reference rate to 0.5 percent from 0.1 percent, in a bid to stem inflation, which hit 5.8 percent last month, news agencies reported.
The Polish zloty currency surged on the news, the Bloomberg financial news service reported.
It said none of the 29 economists it surveyed had predicted the hike, which was expected to happen next month.
The hike comes after 16 former Polish central bank officials urged an immediate rise to curb inflation, Bloomberg also reported.
It noted that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier on Wednesday said he expected “an appropriate response” from the central bank to the fastest price growth in the country in 20 years.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Bloomberg