As of September 1st, salaries for educators, nurses and health care technicians, and caregivers in social care institutions will be increased by 5.5 percent. We are talking about about 205,000 citizens of Serbia, and from the beginning of next year, not only they, but also other employees in the public sector will receive a salary increase of about 10 percent.
This was recently stated by Sinisa Mali, Minister of Finance. He emphasized that the claims that real wages are devalued are not true. Because, as he explained, when you look at the average salary from May this year, and when you compare it to May 2022, then this year’s salary is higher.
Ivan Nikolić, director of scientific research development at the Economic Institute in Belgrade, notes that there is a noticeable surge of enthusiasm among politicians these days, because at this moment, ending in May of this year, for the first time at the level of the entire economy, the year-on-year real growth of the average salary has been recorded. However, he repeats that inflation, which is high and is a consequence of the breakdowns in the world, has contributed to the real devaluation of wages.
Earnings have increased significantly in nominal terms, but they lost value in the first half of the year. As prices return, first, to the single-digit zone, and we expect this already in the autumn months, that is, before the New Year, it can be expected that we will enter the positive zone of real wage growth.
The mass of wages has grown more strongly, because employment is higher, which is again very good and sustainable. But, year-on-year, salaries in the public sector have been lower in recent months. Inflation was 12.5 percent in July and it is very possible that it will be lower in the last quarter of this year. As of May of this year, for the first time at the level of the entire economy, the year-on-year real growth of the average wage was recorded – reveals Nikolić.
He adds that this is owed exclusively to employees in the private sector, while those in the public sector still have a significant real drop in their annual average salary. This will probably be corrected in the second part of the year as inflation decreases – concludes our interlocutor.
