Polish Central Bank Says Critics Support Russian Untruths
(Bloomberg) -- Poland pushed back against critics of its monetary policy by saying anyone who thought it wasn’t adequately tackling inflation was a supporter of historic antagonist Russia.
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On a massive billboard hung on its headquarters in Warsaw this week, the central bank said Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic were to blame for the fastest price growth in a quarter century.
“It’s part of the Kremlin’s narrative to blame the National Bank of Poland and the government for high inflation,” the billboard said.
The cost-of-living crisis has put the central bank and its Governor Adam Glapinski in the crosshairs of the public and opposition before parliamentary elections expected in October.
Poland has been one of the strongest allies of neighboring Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. The nation has sent military equipment and taken in millions of refugees since the full-scale invasion started last year.
At the same time, the nationalist ruling Law & Justice party has long criticized Moscow for actions going back to the bloody 1939 Red Army invasion and four decades of Soviet-backed communist rule that blocked Poland from the post-War economic prosperity enjoyed by western Europe.
A ruling party appointee, Glapinski has dismissed criticism against his policies — which include a refusal to increase borrowing costs further — as politically-motivated, and used a recent news conferences to deflect the blame.
The central bank paused a year-long series of rate hikes in October. Consumer price growth eased to 14.7% in April, and policymakers expect it to return into single digits later this year.
The billboard is part of a broader campaign to raise awareness in the society about the real causes of inflation and is inextricably linked with fulfilling the NBP’s mandate, the central bank’s press office said in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg News.
(Updates with a central bank comment in final paragraph.)
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