Poland’s central bank governor Adam Glapinski was caught on camera telling a woman how to best take advantage of the country’s mortgage “holiday” and suggesting interest rates may only rise one more time, if at all. according to Bloomberg.
A video posted on the YouTube channel of Agrounia, a farmers’ activist group, showed Glapinski and his wife being approached by the woman and asked how she can afford to repay a loan she took out two years ago when borrowing costs were at a record low of 0.1%.
The central bank has since raised interest rates to 6.5% as inflation soared to its highest level in a quarter of a century. The moves sparked a public outcry and prompted the government to adopt legislation allowing borrowers to suspend up to eight monthly mortgage payments from August until the end of 2023.
Glapinski, dressed in faded jeans and a baseball cap, appears to tell the woman she can take a four-month “break” on payments. The pair had a five-minute, often heated exchange on a pier in the seaside resort of Sopot in northern Poland.
“You will then have to take a ‘holiday’ every quarter of the next year and then the interest rates will be lower,” he went on to say.
Glapinski has been vilified for allowing inflation to soar during his tenure as the opposition tries to turn the cost of living crisis into a major issue in next year’s general election. The governor said earlier this month that the central bank is nearing the end of its rate hike cycle, but did not elaborate on what policymakers are likely to do next.
“Right now we have the highest interest rates and the highest inflation,” Glapinski is heard telling the woman. “If there is going to be another” rate hike “it will only be by 0.25” percentage points, he added.
A spokesman for Agrounia told Bloomberg that the video was recorded on Friday night and that the woman owned a small restaurant in Sopot, but could not say whether the governor knew it was being filmed. The central bank’s press office said the governor was on vacation and had no comment.
Source: Capital
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