Salaries up by 2.7% y/y in December

The average gross monthly salary in the Polish enterprise sector grew by 2.7 percent year-on-year and by 8.3 percent month-on-month to PLN 4221.50 in December 2013, statistics office GUS said on Monday. Economists surveyed by the Polish Press Agency had expected the average salary to grow by 3.1 percent y/y and by 8.8 percent m/m. Salary growth has remained moderate throughout the past year and did not hamper economic recovery or employment growth, BZ WBK economists wrote in an e-mailed comment. They expect the pace of wage growth to reach 5 percent y/y in 2014. GUS also said that Polish businesses employed 5.49 million people in December 2013. The figure grew by 0.3 percent y/y and declined by 0.2 percent m/m. Analysts expected employment to grow by 0.4 percent y/y and remain unchanged in monthly terms. The “annual pace of employment growth has been improving for eight straight months,” BZ WBK economists said. This results from an improving labor market situation and outlook, which encourages companies to hire more people, they added.