Inflation remains low in December

In December 2013 CPI inflation amounted to 0.7 percent year-on-year and 0.1 percent month-on-month, statistics office GUS said on Wednesday. Both figures were in line with the consensus of expectations from economists surveyed by the Polish Press Agency. The biggest reduction was observed in the communications sector (11.6 percent), education (6 percent) and clothing and footwear (4.9 percent). The price of alcohol and tobacco products rose the highest, by 3.7 percent while the utilities' costs grew by 2.2 percent. Annual average inflation came in at 0.9 percent in 2013, GUS also said. Inflation increased slightly in December, but remains low, BZ WBK economists wrote in an e-mailed comment. “We still expect to see a gradual rebound of inflation in the next months – in Q1 2014 it should be above 1 percent and at the end of the year above 2 percent,” they said. The data do not change much in terms of monetary policy outlook, the analysts added, as inflation is likely to stay low until mid-2014.