The Polish central bank raised its key interest rates by a quarter percentage point, a statement said

The Polish central bank raised its key interest rates by a quarter percentage point, a statement said. The bank increased its discount rate from 6.25% to 6.55, the Lombard rate from 7.25% to 7.5% and the minimum bank intervention rate to 6% over a year. Wednesday's increase defied predictions by analysts, who had thought the bank's monetary policy council would wait for its August meeting to hike rates, after increasing basic interest rates by 50 basis points on June 30 in response to a 3.4% year-on-year increase in inflation. That was the first increase since 2001. Before that the last change in interest rates was a drop of 25 basis points on June 25, 2003.