Monetary Policy Council raises interest rates again

The Monetary Policy Council decided to increase the NBP reference rate by 0.75 percentage points, i.e. to 1.25%.

At the same time, the Council set the remaining NBP interest rates at the following levels:

- lombard rate at 1.75%;

- deposit rate at 0.75%;

- rediscount rate at 1.30%;

- discount rate at 1.35%. 

The Council's decisions affect many Poles who took out loans. When the interest rates go up, loan borrowers can expect their monthly payments to increase accordingly.

The Monetary Policy Council raised the interest rates for the first time in 9 years - the NBP reference rate by 40 basis points up to 0.50%, the lombard rate by 50 basis points up to 1.0%, the rediscount rate by 40 basis points up to 0.51%, and the discount rate by 40 basis points up to 0.52%. The Council decided at the time to keep the deposit rate at 0.0%.

Last year, the Council lowered the interest rates three times: on March 17, April 8, and May 28.

"The rise in global prices of both energy and agricultural commodities observed this year as well as continued global supply chain disruptions have led to an increase of inflation forecasts for the coming quarters both globally and in Poland. Amidst expected further economic recovery and favourable labour market conditions, it would generate a risk of inflation remaining elevated in the monetary policy transmission horizon," the Monetary Policy Council said in a statement published at its website.

"In order to reduce this risk, i.e. striving to decrease inflation to the NBP target in the medium term, the Council decided to increase NBP interest rates. NBP may still intervene in the foreign exchange market and use other instruments envisaged in the Monetary Policy Guidelines. The timing and scale of the measures taken by NBP will depend on the market conditions," we read in the statement.