Hourly labour costs in the eurozone increased by 2.5% (“the EZ19”) and by 2.7% in the EU28 in the third quarter of 2018. The figures compare to 1.2% for Belgium, which had one of the lowest increases of the European Union, according to the set of figures released by Eurostat, the European office for statistics.
During the third quarter of 2018, the most significant annual increases in hourly labour costs, taking countries’ respective economies as a whole, were recorded for Romania (an increase of 13.9%), Latvia (up by 13.2%), as well as Lithuania (an increase of 10.7%).
In the same period, the lowest annual increases were recorded for Belgium (up by 1.2%), Portugal (an increase of 1.5%) and Malta and Finland (each with an increase of 1.6%).
The Brussels Times
