The post-1989 chapter examines the reforms introduced by Leszek Balcerowicz, and the near hyperinflation in 1990. Reform occurred with the communist-era leader Władysław Baka still at the head of the NBP, acting as a loyal adjutant for Balcerowicz. Baka was only sacked in 1991, at a moment when the NBP was having to deal with a chaotic financial system. The monetary stabilization, worked out in consultation with the IMF, which was also the key to reducing Poland’s external debt, initially involved an exchange-rate peg, introduced in 1990 as a key part of the stabilization program at 9,500 zł per US dollar, and kept for much longer than originally anticipated; then a crawling-peg regime; from 1995 it moved through a crawling ban to full exchange-rate flexibility in 2000. It was these measures that allowed a transition to a new institutional regime, with the constitution of 1997 anchoring the independence of the central bank, and prescribing a goal of price stability, to be achieved by the establishment of a Monetary Policy Council (MPC) in 1998. In September 1998, the MPC announced a shift to an inflation-targeting framework, and the 2000 adoption of a flexible exchange rate was the logical outcome of that step. Institutionally, Poland entered the twenty-first century with a modern central bank, but also with some very characteristic themes from the past that continued to resonate.