Polish zloty hits a three-year low as Poland moves to try its central bank governor

The Polish zloty has fallen to its weakest level against the euro in three years. On 3 November the euro cost PLN 4.419, the most since 14 November 2023, the European Central Bank’s reference rates show. The zloty has lost 4.9% against the euro since late January, most of it since the end of June.

The fall comes as Poland’s parliament prepares an unprecedented vote. The Sejm is due to decide this month whether to put Adam Glapiński, the president of the National Bank of Poland, before the State Tribunal, the court that tries the country’s top officials for breaches of the constitution and the law.

The Polish zloty’s slide

The zloty was steady in the first half of the year. It then weakened month after month, and by the end of October the euro cost 4.15% more zloty than at the start of the year. It recovered a little after the peak: the rate was PLN 4.389 on 5 November.

Polish zloty's loss against the euro since 31 December 2025, %. Source: European Central Bank, euro reference rate in zloty (EXR.D.PLN.EUR.SP00.A); our calculation, month ends from February (the zloty was 0.3% stronger at the end of January) and the low of 3 November 2026.

Feb	0.1
Mar	1.6
Apr	0.9
May	0.1
Jun	1.7
Jul	2.1
Aug	2.5
Sep	3.4
Oct	4.2
3 Nov	4.5 (weakest since Nov 2023)

Source: European Central Bank, euro reference rate in zloty (EXR.D.PLN.EUR.SP00.A); our calculation, month ends from February (the zloty was 0.3% stronger at the end of January) and the low of 3 November 2026.The Macro Notebook

A currency moves for many reasons, and interest rates are one. The National Bank of Poland has kept its reference rate at 3.75% since 5 March, when it cut by a quarter point, the bank’s rate table shows, and has not moved it since. The European Central Bank, which sets rates for the euro, held at 2.50% last week, as we reported on 30 October. Elsewhere in Europe rates are going up: the Bank of England raised its rate to 4% on Thursday. A currency whose central bank holds while others raise can lose ground.

The other reason is doubt about the central bank itself.

Why Glapiński faces the State Tribunal

Parliament’s Constitutional Accountability Committee adopted a 148-page report on 9 October asking the Sejm to send Glapiński to the tribunal, finwire.pl reported. It brings eight charges. Among them:

• buying PLN 144bn of bonds in 2020 and 2021, which the committee treats as indirect financing of the budget deficit without the approval of the Monetary Policy Council;
• intervening in the currency market in March 2022 without a resolution of the bank’s board;
• running a monetary policy at odds with the inflation target, including rate cuts in 2023 before the general election;
• misleading the finance minister about a PLN 6bn profit payment for 2023, a year in which the bank made a loss of PLN 20.8bn;
• and a lack of political neutrality.

How the vote works, and why it is disputed

The Sejm’s speaker, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, said the vote is planned for the second half of November, PAP reported via money.pl. The Sejm sits from 17 to 19 November.

Under the State Tribunal Act, the resolution needs an absolute majority of votes with at least half of the 460 MPs present, so at least 230. The act also says that such a resolution suspends the official it concerns from their duties. That would take Glapiński out of the bank’s chair while the case runs.

Both rules are contested. In January 2024 the Constitutional Tribunal struck down the provisions on the absolute majority and on suspending the bank’s president, and some lawyers now read the law as requiring a three-fifths majority, or 276 votes. The governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, says that ruling is not binding. The bank says a simple majority in the Sejm is not enough. Czarzasty, asked about suspension, said only that “all matters will be clarified” by the vote.

What it means for the zloty

Our view: the market’s question is less whether Glapiński is guilty than who will run the central bank, and by what right. A suspension that the bank and part of the legal system call unlawful could leave Poland with two claims to the governor’s chair, and two views of who sets interest rates. Investors tend to ask for a higher price to hold a currency when that is unclear.

The Sejm’s sitting of 17 to 19 November is the next marker. Until the vote, the zloty will show how much of the dispute the market has already priced in.