Polish MPC’s Sura quits, opening door for more hawkish member

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish central banker Rafal Sura has resigned from the Monetary Policy Council (MPC), he said on Monday, raising the possibility of a hawkish shift on the rate-setting panel before it next sits in September.

Central bank governor Adam Glapinski has struck a more dovish tone in recent months, stressing the risks to growth posed by the war in Ukraine. Sura has echoed this, saying that further signs of economic slowdown could limit the scope for monetary tightening.

“I have submitted my resignation,” Sura told Reuters by telephone, declining to comment on the reasons for his decision. News of the resignation was first reported by state-run news agency PAP.

The last remaining member of Poland’s previous MPC, Sura’s term was due to end in November.

His resignation opens the way for the earlier appointment of another member by Poland’s upper house of parliament, the Senate, which is controlled by the opposition.

The Senate has already appointed Przemyslaw Litwiniuk, a teacher at the Institute of Economics and Finance of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and former deputy finance minister Ludwik Kotecki to the MPC.

Its third candidate, who could replace Sura, is Joanna Tyrowicz, a professor at the University of Warsaw.

“She may change the debate in the council and provide some hawkish tone,” said Rafal Benecki, chief economist at ING in Poland.

However, Benecki said there would still not be enough hawks to alter the balance of decision making in the MPC.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget and Public Finance, Kazimierz Kleina told PAP that it would consider Sura’s resignation on Wednesday.

Kleina was also quoted by PAP as saying that his resignation would probably be voted on at the next Senate meeting on July 20-22.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Anna Koper, Marel Strzelecki; Editing by Susan Fenton and Hugh Lawson)