Sales growth, compared with the same month a year earlier, was the fastest since April 2004, the Central Statistical Office reported today, while compared with the year on year growth rate of 12.4% in December the rate of increase was up sharply.
Today's report may tip the balance for the central bank's rate-setting council, which meets to discuss interest rates on Feb. 27. Higher-than-expected industrial output last week increased speculation that the bank will raise the 5.25 percent benchmark interest rate for the sixth time in 10 months. The zloty traded at 3.563 per euro at 10:55 a.m. in Warsaw, little changed from earlier in the morning and Friday's close. The yield on the government's bond maturing in April 2012 rose 3 basis points to 6.138 percent from Friday.
Cars sales soared an annual 42 percent in January, leading retail sales of all products and followed by an almost 30 percent gain in sales of textiles and footwear. January sales of food rose 12.5 percent on the year after falling 0.3 percent in December.
The central bank-led Monetary Policy Council starts its two- day meeting tomorrow. The council lifted the key interest rate to 5.25 percent last month. The rate was record-low 4 percent in April last year when the council started to its series of rate increases.
1 comment:
During the first two years of Poland's EU accession GDP growth was fueled by exports. Now with the złoty strong against the EUR and noticably the dollar the economy has received a big push from consumer spending which is basically based on increasing consumer confidence.
This recent growth in retail spending looks very promising and should continue for quite some time (I would even venture to say that until the 2012 World Cup).
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