Poland keeps interest rates unchanged

The Polish central bank's rate-setting Monetary Policy Council left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, keeping the reference rate at 5.75 percent.

The Warsaw headquarters of the National Bank of Poland (NBP).

Photo: Andrzej Barabasz, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Last year, the panel slashed key interest rates by a combined 100 basis points, amid signs of subsiding inflation.

Poland’s central bank chief, Adam Glapiński, said in November that the country's interest rates were unlikely to rise anytime soon.

He told reporters at the time that if Polish interest rates were to change, they would be more likely to go down than up, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

Inflation in Poland stood at 4.3 percent last month, up from 4.2 percent in July, according to a flash estimate by the country’s statistics office.

RPP utrzymała stopy procentowe bez zmian. Główna stopa NBP wynosi 5,75%. Taka decyzja Rady była powszechnie oczekiwana. Obecnie stopy w Polsce są niższe niż na Węgrzech (6,75%) natomiast wyższe niż w Czechach (4,5%) czy strefie euro (4,25). pic.twitter.com/lNUrXkabrl

— Polski Instytut Ekonomiczny (@PIE_NET_PL) September 4, 2024

The Polish central bank said in its latest Inflation Report, released on July 5, that inflation would average at 3.7 percent this year, followed by 5.2 percent in 2025 and 2.7 percent in 2026.

In 2021 and 2022, the Monetary Policy Council delivered a string of rate hikes in an effort to contain surging consumer prices.

(gs)

Source: IAR, PAP