Inflation in Poland hit 17.9 percent last month, reaching its highest level since December 1995, Statistics Poland (GUS) announced on Tuesday.
The figure is an increase of 1.8 percent for the prices of goods and services compared to September.
The final inflation reading is in accordance with the previous flash estimate. Statistics Poland said that prices of goods in October 2022 increased by 19.5 percent on a year-over-year basis, while services rose by 13 percent. On a month-over-month basis, prices of goods increased by 2.1 percent and services by 0.7 percent.
Prices of foods and beverages, housing fees, and transport increased the most, by 22 percent, 28.7 percent, and 17.3 percent year-over-year, respectively. Prices in restaurants and hotels rose 18.5 percent.
Analytics from mBank SA note that base inflation (excluding energy and food prices) reached 11-11.1 percent, but “the acceleration is slowly settling.”
National Bank of Poland (NBP) said that in the most likely scenario, consumer inflation (CPI) will reach 14.5 percent in 2022, will drop to 13.1 percent in 2023, and only in 2024 reach a single-digit level of 5.9 percent. Meanwhile, NBP forecasts that Polish GDP will increase by just 0.7 percent in 2023.
The increase in food prices will be the strongest in the fourth quarter of 2022. It will then decrease in subsequent quarters and return to a single-digit level in the final quarter of 2023.
