Cost of labour rises amid inflation hike

In the last quarter of 2021, the average hourly labour cost in Cyprus was estimated to have edged up by 1.6%, compared with the same quarter of the previous year, according to the Statistical Services’ provisional data

In the third quarter of 2021, the hourly labour cost increased by 7.8%.

According to CyStat, the two main components of labour costs, wages and salaries per hour worked and non-wage costs per hour worked increased by 1.7% and 0.9% respectively, compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

In the third quarter of 2021, the annual changes were 4.3% for the wages and salaries per hour worked and 26% for the non-wage cost per hour worked.

CyStat’s survey follows an earlier report recording that a hike in petrol prices, electricity, fruit and vegetables have driven inflation up in February to 6.6%.

In February 2022, the Consumer Price Index increased by 1.27 units to 105.84 compared to 104.57 units in January.

For January-February, the CPI increased by 6% year-on-year. It increased 1.2% since January.

The largest changes when compared to the index of February 2021 were in petroleum products (28.4%), electricity (22.4%) and agricultural goods (17.5%).