NBP MPC Press Release - 2021-05-05
Central bank: nbp | Type: decision | Date: 2021-05-05

Warsaw, 5 May 2021 
Information from the meeting of the Monetary Policy 
Council held on 5 May 2021 
The Council decided to keep the NBP interest rates unchanged: 
 
• reference rate at 0.10%; 
• lombard rate at 0.50%; 
• deposit rate at 0.00%; 
• rediscount rate at 0.11%; 
• discount rate at 0.12%. 
 
NBP will continue to purchase government securities and government-guaranteed 
debt securities on the secondary market as part of the structural o pen market 
operations. The timing and scale of the conducted measures will d epend on the 
market conditions. Furthermore, NBP will also offer bill discount credit aimed at 
refinancing loans granted to enterprises by banks. 
In the recent period pandemic situation wor ldwide was diversified and in m any 
European countries it remained difficult. In many euro area countries the number of new 
cases was still elevated, but at the end of April it started to slightly decrease. Pandemic-
related restrictions were still negatively affecting activity in the service sector in some 
European economies. At the s ame time, economic i ndicators suggested a fu rther 
recovery in manufacturing sector coupled with emergence of supply bottlenecks in some 
markets. 
Prices of many commodities, including oil, are curren tly significantly higher than a 
year ago. Such developments in c ommodity prices together with supply disruptions 
related to the pandemic are exerting an upward pressure o n global inflation. However, 
due to still weak economic conditions and uncertainty about the economic outlook, 
major central banks are keeping their interest rates l ow and are conducting a sset 
purchases and signal maintaining loose monetary policy also in the future. 
Incoming data on economi c development s in Poland indicate an im provement in 
economic situati on, which however remains strongly diversified across sectors . In 
March, annual growth in industrial production and re tail sales significantly increased, 
partly as a conseque nce of base effects related to the dr op in these categories after the 
outbreak of pandemic in M arch 2020. At the same time, annual change in construction 
and assembly output remained strongly negative. This was accompanied by falling 
average em ployment in the enterprise sector and increasing average annual wage 
growth in this sector. 
 
 
According to the Statistics P oland flash estimate, inflation in April 2021 stood at 
4.3% y/y. Increase in inflation was driven primarily by a further rise in fuel prices 
stemming from significantly higher than a year ago oil prices in the international 
markets as well as gro wing food pric es. At the same ti me, the annual CPI has been 
pushed up by electricity prices that rose at the beginning of 2021 and by the increases of 
waste disposal charges, i.e. by factors that – similarly to growing c ommodity pric es – 
were independent from the domestic monetar y policy. The growing costs of running 
business amidst the pandemic, including higher transport charges and temporary 
disruptions in supply chains, also continue to add to inflation. 
The abovementioned factors will probably translate into annual price growth staying 
above the upper band for deviations from the inflation target in the coming months. At 
the same time, next year – after the factors temporarily increasing price growth fade –
inflation i s expected to decrease. Price developments ne xt year w ill depend on 
robustness of economic recovery, including situation in the labour market after phasing-
out of anti-crisis measures. 
Available forecasts indicate that the coming quarters will see a re covery of economic 
activity, although the scale and pace of the recovery are uncertain. The further course of 
the pandemic and its impact on the economic situation in Poland and abroad continue to 
be the main source of uncertainty. The economic po licy measures, including the easing 
of NBP’s monetary policy introduced last year and the expected recovery in the global 
economy, will have a positive imp act on the domestic economic situation. The pace of 
the economic recovery in Poland will also depend on further developments of the zloty 
exchange rate. 
NBP will continue to purchase government securities and govern ment-guaranteed 
debt securities on the secondary market as part of the structural open market operations. 
These operations are aimed at chan ging the long-term liquidity structure in the banking 
sector, ensuring the liquidity in the secondary markets for the purchased securities and 
enhancing the impact of the NBP interest rate cuts on the economy, i.e. strengthening the 
monetary policy transmi ssion mechanism. I n order to strengthen the impact of NBP’s 
monetary policy easing on the economy, NBP may also intervene in the foreign exchange 
market. The timing and scal e of the measures taken by NBP will depend on the market 
conditions. Furthermore, NBP will also continue to offer bill dis count credit aimed at 
refinancing loans granted to enterprises by banks.