No threat posed by minimum salary rise
Parliament’s Budget Office (PBO) said on Thursday in its report for the fourth quarter of 2019 that the achievement of the primary surplus target of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product is secured, as the Greek economy has proved its resilience despite last year’s significant tax breaks.
During Thursday’s presentation of the report, PBO chief Frangiskos Koutentakis made it clear that there is no concern about the minimum wage: The report says that despite the 11 percent hike in basic pay in 2019, there was actually a 1.2 percent year-on-year reduction in the salary cost index in the third quarter of 2019, ending a period of seven quarters of constant growth.”
It is actually estimated that “this development is an indication of the limited spillover of the rise in the minimum wage (as of January 2019) to other salaries in the economy” in the context of employment growth.
