The Polish Financial Supervision Authority, on the eve of the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Council in March, suggested to banks that when determining the creditworthiness of potential borrowers, they assume that interest rates may increase by 5%. Reference rate of 2.75% would then be 7.75 percent. What does this mean in practice for all those who are now paying off their debts – from credit card loans to several hundred thousand mortgage loans? For now, on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the Monetary Policy Council raised interest rates by another 0.75 percent, but from March 9, interest rates on loans will be as high as 14 percent. Probably only until April 6, when the next MPC meeting will take place, because from April 7 they will be even more expensive, the only unknown is how much.
If on April 6 the MPC raises rates by 0.75 percent again, then from April 7 the maximum interest rate on consumer loans will increase by 1.5 percent. that is, it will be 15.5 percent.
This time, the Monetary Policy Council would have surprised the market if it had not raised rates or raised them less than 0.75 percent. Inflation in February most likely reached the level of 12 percent and it is not the end yet, because oil, gas and other energy carriers are still more expensive on the commodity markets – without stabilizing their prices, it will be difficult to stop the upward trend in prices.
The interest rate hike by 0.75 percent. will mean that in April the interest rate on consumer loans will jump by another 1.5 percent. In a month the increase was as much as the maximum interest rate in five months until recently!
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