WARSAW: A candidate for the Polish central bank’s policy-making board slammed its response to surging inflation, saying interest-rate increases came too late and more hikes are “inevitable.”

       Ludwik Kotecki, whom the opposition-controlled Senate proposed to join the 10-person panel last week, said he expects the Monetary Policy Council (MPC) to lift borrowing costs for a fourth straight month in January.

       The central bank “slept through” the right moment to begin lifting borrowing costs, he told Radio TOK FM. A decision by the government to cut taxes and boost cash handouts to ease the inflationary burden on poorer Poles is “proof of failure in fighting inflation,” he added.

       Those steps “wouldn’t be necessary if the attempt to fight inflation started earlier,” Kotecki said. “All the economists in Poland, or almost of them, say that the right moment was missed.”

       If approved for the job, Kotecki will take one of the two seats on the MPC that will vacate next month, after the January meeting. He previously served as deputy finance minister and Poland’s representative at the International Monetary Fund.

       His comments add to the chorus of criticism, including from the political opposition, that the central bank waited too long with rate increases. It started raising borrowing costs in October, months later than in the nearby Czech Republic and Hungary. — Bloomberg Governor Adam Glapinski has said the criticism is politically-motivated. More increases may be needed, he wrote on Thursday, to prevent high inflation, now running at the fastest pace in more than two decades, from becoming entrenched.

       “There are no signs that inflation could slow” as the economy is already “running hot,” Kotecki said. Bloomberg