Hourly labour costs rose by 1.6% in Malta and by 2.1% in the EU28 in the third quarter of 2017, compared with the same quarter the previous year, according to Eurostat.

The two main components of labour costs are wages & salaries and non-wage costs.

In the EU28, hourly wages and salaries rose by 2.1% and the non-wage component by 2.3% in the third quarter of 2017. In the second quarter of 2017, annual changes were +2.5% and +1.8% respectively.

In Malta, wages rose by 1.5% and non-wages by 2.9%. In the second quarter of 2017, the annual changes were 4.1% and 4.5% respectively.

The highest annual increases in hourly labour costs for the whole economy were registered in Romania (+16.5%), Hungary (+12.6%) and Bulgaria (+10.7%). Only two countries saw decreases: Finland (-3.0%) and Portugal (-1.1%).

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