Czech central bank governor sees slowdown in wage rises for 2019

The governor of the Czech National Bank, Jiří Rusnok, has said wage rises next year in the country can be expected to slow down.

Speaking on public broadcaster, Czech Television, Rusnok said on Sunday that real wage rises should be in line with real economic growth, that is somewhere around 4.0 percent.

In the last quarter of 2017 Czech gross average monthly wages exceeded 30,000 crowns for the first time after an 8.0 percent rise. Taking account for inflation the real wage rise was 5.3 percent with year on year growth in the quarter 5.2 percent.

Rusnok added that current Czech economic growth is around one percentage point lower than it could be if some problems, such as the shortage of labour, could be ironed out.

Author: Chris Johnstone