Gross wages climb 3.1 pc in July

Budapest, September 18 (MTI) – Average gross wages in Hungary rose by 3.1 percent year-on-year to 244,171 forints (EUR 780) in July, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Friday.

Net wages rose at the same pace to reach 159,933 forints.

Excluding the impact of the fostered workers, who earned just 79,599 forints in July, gross wages were up by 3.8 percent at 257,922 forints.

Hungarians took home monthly regular pay of 231,705 forints, up 4.0 percent up in one year. Bonuses reached 12,466 forints in July, on average, 10.6 percent less than in the same month a year earlier.

In the business sector, which includes state-owned companies, gross wages were up by 3.7 percent at 257,593 forints. In the public sector, gross wages increased by 1.5 percent to 218,603 forints. Both figures include fostered workers.

Excluding fostered workers, business sector wages rose 3.6 percent in twelve months to 258,937 forints in July and public sector wages were up by 3.8 percent at 256,313 forints.

The number of employed in Hungary increased by an annual 2.9 percent to 2,921,600 in July. The number included 202,800 full-time fostered workers, up by 13.2 percent from a year earlier.

The number employed in the business sector was up by 2.4 percent at 1,931,000. The number in the public sector increased by 3.4 percent to 884,600.

The number of full-time fostered workers in the business sector fell by 7.6 percent from July 2014 to 12,700 and their number in the public sector rose 14.9 percent in one year to 178,900.

For the January-July period monthly gross wages averaged 243,356 forints, 3.5 percent higher than in the same period last year. Average net wages in the first six months also grew by 3.5 percent on a year-on-year basis to 159,399 forints.

The number of employed was 2,872,000 in January-July, up by 2.3 percent from a year earlier. The number included 182,400 fostered workers, 1.3 percent more than in January-July last year.

January-July employment in the business sector was up by 2.7 percent including fostered workers and rose by 2.8 percent excluding them. Public sector employment in the first seven months was up by 1.3 percent year-on-year with fostered workers and rose by 0.8 percent without them.

Analyst Gergely Suppan of Takarekbank said real wages could grow by 3.6 percent on average this year, with gross wages rising around 4.0 percent and inflation projected at 0.2 percent. Suppan also predicted 4.0 percent annual average wage growth for next year, which could result in net wage growth of 5.5 percent due to tax changes. With inflation projected at 2.4 percent next year, net real wages could rise by 3 percent.

Analysts Vivien Barczel and Gergely Urmossy of Erste Bank said real wage growth could slow down in the sustained low-inflation environment, although it could continue in the remaining part of the year.

Sandor Czomba, economy ministry state secretary in charge of the labour market and training, told news channel M1 commenting on the figures that real wages have been growing steadily for 31 months, with the largest increase reported in the finance sector where gross monthly wages are now above 500,000 forints.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters