Hungarian wage growth reaches 12.8 pc, average net wage was 672 euros

The average gross monthly wage in Hungary stood at 326,724 forints (EUR 1,010) in July, up 12.8 percent year-on-year, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Thursday.

Gross wage growth has been in the double digits since early last year, lifted by an agreement on minimum wage increases as well as a labour shortage.

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The average net monthly wage was 217,271 forints (672 euros), also up by 12.8 percent.

The average monthly wage included about 17,947 forints in bonuses and benefits.

Excluding the some 113,400 Hungarians in fostered work programmes, gross wages rose by 11.4 percent to 337,058 forints and net wages stood at 224,143 forints. Fostered workers working full time earned a gross monthly 82,219 forints on average in July, 0.9 percent more than a year earlier.

Real wage growth came to 9.1 percent, calculating with a July CPI of 3.4 percent.

In the business sector, which includes state-owned companies, gross wages were up 11.1 percent at 335,084 forints in July. Excluding fostered workers they rose by 10.9 percent to 335,588 forints.

In the public sector, gross wages climbed 16.9 percent to 312,847 forints. The rise was 12.9 percent excluding fostered workers, to 347,440 forints a month.

Hungarians working in industry earned a gross monthly 341,029 forints on average in July.

Construction workers earned 256,182 forints, those in the ICT sector made 554,517 forints and those in finance and insurance got 585,437 forints. In the education sector, the average gross wage was 322,939 forints, and it was 220,964 in health and social services.

In January-July 2018, the average gross monthly wage stood at 324,743 forints and the average net monthly wage at 215,954 forints, both up 12.1 percent from the same period of last year.

Real wages in January-July were up 9.4 percent.

Commenting on the data, Finance Minister Mihály Varga called the January-July wage growth rate remarkable. He told public news channel M1 that the increase in wages would continue in the coming months.

Of the Visegrad Group countries, Hungary registered the second-highest wage growth rate over the first seven months of the year behind Poland, Varga said. The average gross monthly wage in Hungary is about level with the average wage in Slovakia, he added.

Varga welcomed that

the number of fostered workers has fallen by 35,000 during the period.

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Source: MTI