Momentum In Polish Retail Sales Slightly Weaker In June

Polish retail sales rose at their slowest rate this year in June, suggesting that the increase in consumer demand may now be slowing enough to allow monetary policy makers to pause before raising rates again. Retail sales rose at an annual 14.2 percent rate, compared with 14.9 percent in May. The monthly increase was 2.4 percent, after a 1.9 percent decline in May, the Warsaw-based Central Statistical Office reported today. The pace of retail sales growth has now halved since February in real terms.



Policy makers at the Polish central bank have lifted borrowing costs by 2 percentage points since April 2007 as wage growth and higher consumption have kept the inflation rate above the central bank's target of 2.5 percent for the last nine months.