Wages and salaries in the Euro Area increased 2.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019 following a 2.3 percent advance in the previous three-month period. That was the strongest wage growth in almost a decade, comfortably above the first-quarter inflation rate of 1.4 percent. Among Eurozone's largest economies, wage growth accelerated in Germany (2.5 percent vs 2.3 percent), France (2.8 percent vs 2.0 percent), Italy (1.9 percent vs 1.6 percent) and Spain (2.2 percent vs 1.2 percent). Wage Growth in the Euro Area averaged 1.81 percent from 2009 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 3.40 percent in the second quarter of 2009 and a record low of 0.80 percent in the third quarter of 2010.
Wage Growth in Euro Area is expected to be 2.40 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Wage Growth in Euro Area to stand at 2.50 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Euro Area Wage Growth is projected to trend around 2.60 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.