Moderate Inflation in Poland: A Real Story

Thierry Pujol and Mark Griffiths

No 1996/057, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Why is moving from moderate to low inflation almost always slow or costly? This paper answers this question, based on the Polish experience. First, reflecting the transition to a market economy, Polish inflation has been marked by significant changes in relative prices. Second, as wage and price indexation takes root, the inflationary effect of shocks to relative prices is magnified. Third, lagging structural reform, including the failure to extend hard budget constraints to all sectors of the economy, makes monetary policy less effective. Reduced money supply growth with structural reform offers the best prospect for moving to low inflation.

Keywords: WP; exchange rate; monetary policy; price level; broad money; loss-making firm; restructuring process; utility company; inflation rate; consumer price; cost of living index; marginal product of labor; Inflation; Price adjustments; Monetary tightening; Consumer price indexes; Exchange rates; Eastern Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44
Date: 1996-06-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=1942 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfwpa:1996/057

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().