Analyst: lack of labour force to push salaries up in Slovakia

The lack of a skilled labour force currently being experienced by many companies in Slovakia is expected to push up salaries in the country in general, according to UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia analysts quoted by TASR press agency. The average gross nominal monthly salary in the first quarter of 2017 stood at €897, according to the Statistics Office. Nonetheless, when it came to real salaries, the growth decelerated from 3.7 percent year-on-year to 2.6 percent. "This was due to the reappearance of inflation. However, the continuing growth of real salaries is creating suitable conditions for the further growth of consumption by households. In theory, Slovakia is gradually losing its competitive advantage from past years in terms of extremely favourable labour costs and the labour productivity ratio. The labour costs have also been rising in several CEE countries, which represent the main competitors for Slovak exporters in Europe," stated the analysts. The highest average salary was recorded in the Bratislava region, with the Prešov region being traditionally on the opposite end.