The article verified the widely held opinion about the monetarist character of Polish economic policy, especially the monetary policy, conducted after 1989. This thesis, present also in some academic communities, is accompanied by the implied suggestion that this strategic choice has turned out to be the cause of many difficulties experienced by the economy and the society.

The first part of the article recalls the major characteristics of monetarism, including precise recommendations, aimed at monetary policy, related to the shaping of the money supply. The latter principles of the policy have been subject to statistical verification, which is in position to determine whether the Polish monetary policy, on considering its effects, has had the form consistent with this economic doctrine, very famous about a quarter of the century ago. The effects of the monetary policy implemented in many other countries, such as the US, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the euro area, were also analysed. It allows the determination of to what extent Polish monetary policy was close to the principles of monetarism where compared to other countries. The results presented in the article allowed assessing the so-called dry sponge theory.