Poland’s inflation is rapidly falling from its record-high level in line with the National Bank of Poland’s (NBP) projections, the NBP head has said.
Adam Glapinski held a press conference on April 6 following the NBP’s Monetary Policy Council’s April 5 decision to keep all interest rates unchanged for the seventh month running, with the reference interest rate remaining at 6.75%.
Poland’s CPI inflation declined to 16.2% YoY in March from 18.4% in February, but increased by 1.1 % MoM. Such inflation levels were last seen in Poland in the second half of the 1990s.
“At the central bank, we’re very satisfied that the inflation projection that our bank presented is materialising,” Glapinski said. “Indeed, there has been a rapid downward movement from the plateau that we were speaking about.”
According to the NBP’s March projection, the annual average CPI growth will fall by between 10.2% and 13.5% in 2023, with a 50% probability.
“One should keep in mind that our predictions are based on the information that we have at a given moment,” the central bank president said.
However, Poland’s core inflation, which excluded food and energy that are the most volatile inflation components, would likely increase in March, Glapinski said.
“We don’t have the data yet to say what the March inflation was,” Glapinski said. “However, it could have slightly increased.”
In February, core inflation went up to 12% YoY from 11.7% in January. (PAP/Business World Magazine)