WARSAW, March 15 (Reuters) - Polish inflation climbed to
its highest point in over a quarter of a century in February,
statistics office data showed on Wednesday, driven by food and
energy costs in what many economists expect to be the peak of
the cycle of price growth.
Inflation was 18.4% year-year, below the 18.6%
forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. On a month-to-month
basis it came in at 1.2% compared to the 0.8% expected by
analysts.
"Inflation in February at the level of 18.4% year on year is
the peak of the CPI index and the following months will bring it
down," said Grzegorz Maliszewski, chief economist at Bank
Millennium.
"However, reaching the inflation target is still a distant
prospect, especially as tight labor market and low unemployment
rate will slow down declines in core inflation."
The statistics office also carried out its annual update of
the weighting system it uses to compile the consumer price
index, giving an increased share to food, energy and fuels
amongst other things.
Central Europe has seen some of the continent's highest
inflation, as tight labour markets and a strong rebound from the
COVID-19 pandemic combined with surging food and energy prices
that were affected by the war in Ukraine.
Central banks in the region started battling price pressures
in 2021, sooner than other European Union policymakers, and have
thus ended hiking cycles even as global central banks like the
ECB and U.S. Federal Reserve continue to tighten.
The National Bank of Poland (NBP) kept its main interest
rate on hold at 6.75% in March and analysts polled by Reuters
expect that it will keep borrowing costs stable until the end of
the year.
Elsewhere in the region Bulgarian inflation eased to 16.0%
year on year in February, while in Slovakia, it accelerated to
15.4%.
Czech and Hungarian inflation started to ease in February,
although only slightly in the case of Hungary.
Poland's Central Bank Governor Adam Glapinski said this
month that inflation would fall to single digits at the turn of
August and September.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Karol Badohal)
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