There is still some room for monetary policy tightening, Polish central banker Przemyslaw Litwiniuk told radio TOK FM on Monday.

In November Poland's central bank kept its main interest rates unchanged at 6.75% for a second time in a row despite high inflation amid worries about slowing growth. In October inflation reached 17.9% year on year.

"There is room for some tightening of monetary policy so that real interest rates are less negative and this would translate into inflation expectations," Litwiniuk said.

He added that inflation in Poland might exceed 20% in the first quarter of 2023 given the government does not plan to extend most measures aimed at protecting consumers from rising prices.

Earlier this year Poland introduced measures designed to help people deal with high inflation, including VAT and excise tax cuts.

The measures were extended several times and remain in place until the end of the year. (Reporting by Anna Koper and Pawel Florkiewicz; editing by Gareth Jones and Jason Neely)