Adopting the euro in Poland would be deeply harmful and result in a “radical drop” in the rate of GDP growth, the head of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) warned on January 6.
Adam Glapinski went on to say that making the euro Poland’s currency would benefit “the richest, who invest abroad, have property abroad and spend money abroad.”
“Adoption of the euro by Poland would mean a radical drop in the rate of GDP growth,” he said. “For Poland it would be deeply harmful. We have a Polish economic miracle among other things because we have a Polish currency, which is freely shaped by the market. It is one of the few currencies in the world that is entirely free-market formed.”
Glapinski added that “contrary to the doomsayers”, and despite a lack of interest-rate changes in recent months, “the course of the zloty is good, the zloty has strengthened and stabilised.”
In the NBP governor’s opinion, euro adoption in itself would not help in the fight against inflation. He pointed out that in some EU countries that had the euro, inflation had exceeded 20%.
“Post-communist countries that have the euro often have inflation above 20%, and they have their interest rates set by the ECB (European Central Bank) in Frankfurt,” Glapinski said. (PAP/Business World Magazine)