Cue nostalgia as Poles line up for food - and this time EU's to blame

Housewife Joanna Bialas remembers lining up for her sugar ration during the communist era. In April, she found herself in the sugar queue again, but for an entirely different reason.

'Everyone was worried that prices would rocket after Poland joined the European Union, so we joined the crowds in the grocery store to stock up on food,' said the 47-year-old woman from Katowice in southern Poland.

Ironically, the stockpiling that preceded Poland's accession to the EU helped to achieve what consumers feared the most.

'Prices are going up, especially for sugar, fruit and meat, but wages have not changed,' said Ewa Kapinski, who runs an apartment rental company in Krakow.

Poland, the biggest of the 10 new EU nations, saw annual inflation hit 4.4 per cent in June, around 21/2 times the January rate and well above the central bank's 3.5 per cent target.

National Bank of Poland data shows the price of rice jumped around 28 per cent between mid-April and the end of last month, beef and poultry 22 per cent and butter 13 per cent.

Analysts warned the worst is yet to come. Inflation is expected to peak next month, before falling back to between 3 and 4 per cent by year's end as the prices of goods like bread begin to fall.