The Federal Planning Bureau predicts that Belgium’s smoothed health index will catch up with the pivot index next March and September, leading to cost-of-living adjustments in social benefits and public sector wages.
[The smoothed health index is the arithmetic mean of the health index for the four previous months.]
In its monthly forecasts, largely unchanged from previous projections, the Planning Bureau expects annual inflation to reach 4.1% in 2023 and 4% in 2024.
This is way below the 9.59% registered in 2022 but significantly higher than the 2021 rate of 2.44%.
The changes to the pivot index will result in financial adjustments of 2% in line with living costs. Beneficiaries can expect adjustments in April and May next, followed by later modifications in October and November.
