Polish central bank reports loss of $5 billion dollars in 2023

WARSAW (Reuters) – The National Bank of Poland (NBP) made a loss of 20.8 billion zlotys ($5.2 billion) in 2023 compared to a loss of 16.9 billion zlotys the previous year, it said in its financial report on Wednesday, later citing the impact of a strong zloty.

The zloty, which has firmed since an October parliamentary election and is currently worth about 25 cents, has had a significant impact on the central bank’s financial results as it influences the amount of reserves held, including those in foreign currencies.

The central bank said in a statement released later on Wednesday that the negative result from exchange rate differences on the 2023 result amounted to 31.0 billion zlotys.

Poland’s new ruling coalition, which took power late last year, wants to bring NBP chief Adam Glapinski before a state tribunal, partly over the bank’s performance.

Glapinski has been accused by the new government of not being sufficiently independent of the nationalist previous government.

He also faces accusations of breaking constitutional rules that prevented the bank from financing government borrowing during the COVID-19 pandemic, misleading the finance ministry about the bank’s results, and telling the finance ministry last August that the bank may make a 6-billion-zloty profit in 2023.

Glapinski says he has always done his job independently of political influence. He says the difference between the August estimate of the bank’s results and the bank’s eventual loss was caused by the zloty strengthening since the election.

($1 = 4.0409 zlotys)

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)