Most Poles say gov't failed to handle inflation

As many as 70 percent of Poles have criticised the government for not having taken appropriate action to stem inflation, which recently approached 8 percent, a poll has shown.

The inflation rate in Poland jumped to 7.7 percent year on year in November, according to a flash estimate by the Central Statistical Office.

In the survey run by IBRIS and published by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper on Monday, only 23.4 percent said the government had taken adequate steps to fight inflation.

Of those, a mere 5.1 percent believed the measures were satisfactory, while 18.3 percent said they were "quite satisfactory".

Among respondents who criticised the government, 30.1 percent said the government "has rather not taken" appropriate measures, while 40.7 percent said the government "has definitely not taken" such steps.

"This shows that the whole defence strategy presented so far, in which the government argued that a similar negative situation was also present in other countries while the Polish government was introducing anti-inflation steps, seems to be ineffective," Rzeczpospolita observed.

The government has decided to introduce a set of temporary tax cuts and allowances for low-earners to shield society from inflation, but only 16 percent of the ruling party's supporters believed that the move was "definitely satisfactory," while no-one shared such a view among opposition supporters.

The "quite satisfactory" answer was provided by 41 percent of ruling party supporters and 10 percent of opposition supporters as well as 6 percent of the undecided.

Adam Glapinski, the central bank governor who is running for a second term of office, was smashed by the respondents, of whom only 3.4 percent said he "definitely" deserves a second term, with 14.3 percent saying he "rather" deserves to stay in office.

Nearly a half, 48.7 percent, were against or rather against Glapinski continuing in his role while 33.6 percent were undecided.