Polish bonds rose more than any other government-debt securities after a report showed inflation slowed the most since May

Polish bonds rose more than any other government-debt securities after a report showed inflation slowed the most since May. Consumer prices rose 4 percent last month on an annualized basis, after gaining 4.4 percent in December, the Central Statistical Office said in Warsaw. Economists had expected price gains to accelerate to 4.6 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The 6 1/4 percent bond due October 2015 rose 1.56, or 1.5 percent, to 104.80 at 4:15 p.m. in London, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its yield fell 19 basis points, or 0.19 percentage point, to 5.64 percent, the biggest gain or decline on the day among global government bonds tracked by Bloomberg as of 4:28 p.m. London time. Poland's central bank forecast in its November inflation projection that the annual rate will peak at 4.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, revising down its earlier prediction of a 5-percent high. The annual inflation rate has exceeded the central bank's target range of between 1.5 and 3.5 percent since June last year, prompting it to raise interest rates three times. The benchmark 14-day intervention rate has remained at 6.5 percent since the last raise in August. Poland's $215 billion economy, the largest among the 10 nations that joined the EU in May, expanded 5.4 percent last year, the fastest since 1997. The Polish government forecasts 5 percent growth this year, more than twice the European central Bank's estimate of 1.9 percent for the dozen nations sharing the euro.