Monetary Policy Council keeps interest rates unchanged

The Monetary Policy Council (RPP), the Polish central bank's rate-setting body, has kept the reference interest rate at 6.75 percent.

The National Bank of Poland's Lombard rate remained at 7.25 percent, the rediscount rate at 6.80 percent, and the discount rate at 6.85 percent, the RPP announced after its sitting on Wednesday.

The RPP also left the deposit rate unchanged at 6.25 percent.

The rate-setting body's decision was in line with the market consensus. Economists believe that if rates are cut this year it will happen in the second half-year with some believing cuts will not occur before 2024.

May's decision was the eighth time running the RPP had left interest rates unchanged, following 11 consecutive increases aimed at curbing inflation.

The prices of consumer goods and services (Consumer Price Index, CPI) increased by 14.7 percent year on year and by 0.7 percent month on month in April 2023, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) reported in a flash estimate on April 28.