The increase of wages in real terms by more than 10 percent means that people who earned their living from work had extra income, on average, worth more than one month of wage last year, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said.

The Minister added that the Government’s objective was to see the household budget of Hungarian families gain as much as possible, with improved finances and a rising amount of savings.

These factors would in turn boost domestic consumption and, as a result, fuel growth of the Hungarian economy, he stated. Thanks to the Government-initiated six-year wage agreement, which stipulates a large-scale reduction of payroll taxes and the significant increase of the minimum wage (for unskilled workers) and the guaranteed minimum wage (for skilled workers), in the period January-November 2017 gross and net wages were both up by 12.8 percent, the largest growth in the past fifteen years. The 59-month upward trend, he noted, also shows that work is increasingly worth it in Hungary. The average gross wage rose to HUF 294 000, up by 46 percent since 2010. In the case of net wages, however, the rate of growth was even more remarkable, as a result of tax cuts and the steadily widening scope of family tax incentives, he pointed out. Net wages have gained 48 percent in the past seven years, excluding the effect of tax incentives. Depending on the number of children in a family, net wage growth was even higher.

This year, the wage growth outlook continues to be promising: the Government is expecting wage hikes to average some 9 percent, the Minister said.

(Ministry for National Economy)