Spanish labour costs grow sharply in Q1: social security contributions +3.6% and wages +1.7%
Nominal labour costs in Spain have increased +2.1% in Q1 2019, compared to 0.9% in Q4 2018. It is the largest increase since Q4 2103 (+2.1%).
wages
Now It’s Time To Talk About Salaries
The recession has produced one clear victim and it’s called salaries. Starting with those lost by the jobless and by those who have used up all their unemployment benefit. But those workers on lower salaries, have also suffered, seeing their purchasing power diminished.
The weakness of Spain’s exports industry: we need more high-technology investment
Of its total exports, Spain only sells 5% of high-technology products overseas, or 1.65% of GDP. The country needs to boost investment in high-tech goods and services.
Why Is Spain’s Recovery Not Reaching Wage Earners?
International organisations and the leading research departments are revising their growth forecasts upwards for the Spanish economy for this year and 2018. But at the same time, they note that Spain’s recovery is not reaching most wage earners.
Spanish Wage Trends And Productivity Are Travel Companions
From its pre-crisis maximum level, the real value of salaries has fallen 43 billion euros, mainly in the construction sector. On the other hand, in the services sector they have risen by some 5 billion euros. Since the start of the economic recovery, wages have increased below productivity rates. This has been particularly noticeable in the manufacturing sector.
Vigilant Of Second Round Effects
BoAML | We have remained quite bearish on Euro area inflation for the past few years, particularly compared with ECB forecasts (but also consensus), and have highlighted the many downside risks to the inflation outlook.
Will rising labour costs damage Spain’s competitiveness?
F. Barciela/ F. G. Ljubetic | Labour costs in Spain stagnated during the crisis, but the idea that they eventually have to rise again has quite a few supporteres, including many businessmen. It would even be a postive driver for consumption and the economy general.
Spain Is Hampered By Its Deficit
Ofelia Marín-Lozano | Spain’s public deficit stood at 5.18% of GDP, missing the target set by Brussels (4.2%) by one percentage point. So the deficit should not be higher than nominal GDP growth, which can be estimated at around 3% in the long term.
Spain employment 2015: More temporary and part-time workers, lower wages
MADRID | July 5, 2014 | By Fernando González Urbaneja | It’s been one of the costs of the crisis: an internal wage devaluation. Over the last year and half of the economic recovery, with the country’ GDP growing more than one percentage point above the EU average, Spain managed to create almost a million new jobs, almost one-third of what was lost.
Deal to raise Spanish wages for the first time in three years
MADRID | June 10, 2015 | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | Spanish unions and employers’ organisations signed a two-year-agreement this week to raise salaries, the first hike in three years. Both parties had been debating for months while the government, distant yet vigilant, recommended a raise combining purchasing power with productivity.