Central bank backs retaining Polish zloty

Poland's currency is one of the sources of its economic success and giving it up would be a grave mistake, the governor of Poland's central bank said in an interview for Monday's Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper.

Commenting voices saying Poland should switch to the euro, Adam Glapiński said the fact that Poland has kept its own currency was one of the reasons behind its huge economic growth over the past two decades.

Glapiński said Poland's GDP more than doubled from 2001 to 2021, with unemployment falling to a negligible level, and stressed that this was not only the result of hard work and entrepreneurship, but also the fact that Poland has its own currency.

"Poland's economic success has many sources... most of all the Poles' entrepreneurial spirit and diligence. Another supporting factor was a well-weighed economic policy. But a very crucial component of this success, without which we would have certainly not advanced so far, was our own currency," Glapiński said.

He pointed out that Poland's currency, the zloty, helped stabilise the economy and protected it from outside financial turbulences. He added that it also boosted exports, especially in times of economic tension, when its value fell. As an example he recalled the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, during which Poland was the EU's only country with GDP growth.

Glapiński also underlined that an own currency enabled the central bank to pursue an independent fiscal policy, which in turn allowed it to better adjust to the national economy's needs than the central banks in the eurozone countries.

"Resigning our currency in the present conditions would be a huge and costly mistake," Glapiński said.