Poland continued to fulfil two convergence criteria required of bidders for the euro-zone in August (the same as one and two months earlier), the ministry of finance said in its monthly Nominal Convergence Monitor.
The first of these criteria was the price stability criterion: Poland's average 12-month HICP inflation was 1.6% (down by 0.2pps m/m) vs. the reference value of 2.3%.
The other one was the long-term interest rates criterion: the average interest rate for the last 12 months in Poland was 4.0% (down by 0.1pps m/m), i.e. it again reached the historically lowest level. At the same time, it was by 1.1pps lower than the reference value, the ministry said.
The fiscal criteria remain unfulfilled as Poland is still under the excessive deficit procedure. It does not fulfil the FX criterion as it has not entered exchange rate mechanism ERM2 yet.
In late May, the European Commission allowed Poland to prolong the period of ending its excessive deficit procedure by two years, i.e. by the end of 2014.
According to recent official statements, the Polish government will now focus on fulfilling the so-called Maastricht criteria, while the decision on the date of the euro adoption should be made only after the 2015 parliamentary and presidential elections. When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, it obliged itself to take on the euro, but with no time restraints.