Polish consumer inflation jumps to four-year high

Polish consumer prices grew at their quickest annual pace in four years in January, driven by higher prices of energy and food, data showed on Monday, but the rise seemed unlikely to trigger rate hikes this year. Inflation picked up to 1.8 percent in January from 0.8 percent in December, statistics office data showed. In month-on-month terms, inflation slowed to 0.4 percent from 0.7 percent the previous month.
Economists polled by Reuters expected inflation at 1.6 percent year-on-year and 0.3 percent month-on-month. Commenting on the data, central banker Jerzy Zyzynski said the rise in prices was not reason to worry as inflation was unlikely to exceed the bank's 2.5 percent target around the end of the year.