Sharjah24 – AFP: Poland's central bank on Tuesday said it was hiking its main interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 2.25 percent -- its fourth consecutive monthly increase to combat rising inflation.

Poland's annual consumer price inflation hit 7.8 percent in November, according to the national statistics office, and analysts are predicting a rise of over 8.0 percent in December.

Inflation is at its highest level in more than 20 years.

The central bank has said the inflation was mostly due to increases in prices of energy and other commodities due to supply chain disruptions and expectations are for this to continue.

"The activity in the global economy continues to recover, yet economic conditions are under a negative impact of supply-side constraints in some markets, high commodity prices and re-escalation of the pandemic in certain countries, including the euro area," it said.

It said the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant "remains an uncertainty factor" for the pandemic and economic developments.

The Polish Economic Institute said it expected the central bank to continue to raise interest rates in the first six months of 2022 up to a level of 3.5 percent by the end of the year.