The Polish Finance Ministry on Tuesday demanded an explanation from Google after its services published erroneous exchange rates, far below market rates, for the Polish currency, the zloty. On Monday afternoon, Google exchange rates showed the euro worth up to 5.20 zlotys, the dollar almost 4.70 zlotys and the Swiss franc 5.30 zlotys, about 23% higher than their market rates currency. “Let’s stay calm. This exchange rate of the zloty that is causing panic is ‘false,'” the Polish Minister of Finance, Andrzej Domanski, reacted on Monday on X (formerly Twitter) after the publication of these prices.
On Tuesday, the zloty exchange rate on Google stabilized compared to data from other financial services. At noon on Tuesday the euro was worth 4.35 zlotys, the dollar 3.97 zlotys and the Swiss franc 4.68 zlotys.
A Google algorithm error?
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance indicated similar situations in the future. The spokesperson for the Polish central bank NBP, for its part, mentioned in X “a fictitious zloty exchange rate” presented on Google, stating that the data “presented by the platform is not always accurate.”
According to experts cited by Polish media, the error could be due to the algorithm used by Google and its poor analysis of market data that was not updated on December 31 and January 1. On Tuesday afternoon, Google stated in a comment on the private news channel TVN 24 that “search functions, such as the exchange rate display, are based on data from external sources.”
Source: BFM TV
