Inflation: opp party wants wage compensation, payrise programme in public sector

The green LMP party on Sunday called for immediate wage compensation and a mid-term pay rise programme for public sector employees because of inflation.

Máté Kanász-Nagy, the party’s co-leader, told a press conference that average inflation is close to 9 percent according to the latest data published by the Central Statistical Office earlier this week.

Inflation has hit its highest level in the past 20 years,

he said.

This particularly affects public sector employees, who have lower average incomes than those working in the private sector and spend a higher portion of their income on food, he said.

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Kanász-Nagy cited the prices of some food products as examples. He said

the price of margarine increased by 38 percent from a year earlier, and the price of bread and poultry rose by almost 30 percent.

He said inflation had a twofold effect, arguing that it hit lower-income earners while the state had more revenue from value added tax, giving the government room for manoeuvre to offset the price increases.

He urged an immediate wage compensation of at least the inflation rate, that is close to 10 percent, for public sector workers, adding that a mid-term pay rise programme should also be launched for them to reduce the income gap with private sector employees.

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Source: MTI