Surging prices imperil Polish govt ahead of vote next year

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — With a backpack slung over his shoulder, Jacek Kryg walks down one row and then another of outdoor vegetable stands at Warsaw's historic Hala Mirowska market. The 72-year-old Kryg already knows which one has the best prices on carrots, broccoli, mushrooms and his other staples. But he is keenly aware of what he spends, so he double-checks all the prices.

His pension, after 30-plus years as a writer and teacher of Chinese metaphysics, is just 2,000 zlotys ($450) a month. Given how inflation has surged, he can't live on that. He's already stopped buying clothes, he travels home to Krakow less frequently to visit his wife and daughter and he needs to keep teaching his workshops.

Kryg expects the frugal habits he adopted under communism to get him through hard times. But he's deeply frustrated, and he blames Poland's populist right-wing government for the dramatic cost-of-living increases, which he believes could have been more contained.

“I see the rising prices at every step,” Kryg said. “All my favorite products are going up.”

While prices are accelerating across Europe, Poland is saddled with one of the continent's highest inflation rates — 17.5% in November compared with 12 months earlier, Poland's state statistics office said last week. That marked a slight easing from October's 17.9% rate, but it still exceeds the 11.1% average across the 27-member European Union.

It is a painful situation for people in a country like Poland, whose economy has boomed since the fall of communism in 1989 and its entry into the EU in 2004. Yet wages and other gauges of economic well-being still haven't caught up with measures of prosperity in the West.

Now, the rising cost of living is eroding hard-earned savings, squeezing people on limited incomes and causing...