Italian wages in 2012 grew at less than half the rate of consumer price inflation, data showed on Monday, helping to explain the worst slump in consumer spending for more than half a century.
Annual wage inflation edged up to 1.7 per cent in December from 1.6 per cent the month before, data showed on Monday, continuing a gradual upwards trend to post its highest rate since October 2011.
But that was still well below the annual inflation rate, which stood at 2.6 per cent in December, based on Italy's EU-harmonised price index.
Over the whole of 2012, wages rose at an average rate of 1.5 per cent from the year before, national statistics office ISTAT reported, compared with an average CPI rate of 3.3 per cent.
Wage inflation in 2012 was the lowest since the start of the historic series in 1983, ISTAT said. It added that the negative gap between wages and consumer price inflation last year was the widest since 1995.
Declining purchasing power has eroded consumer morale, causing what retail associations and think-tanks say is the deepest decline in consumer spending since World War Two.
The euro zone's third largest economy has been in recession since the middle of 2011 and most analysts expect gross domestic product to fall around 1 per cent this year, following a contraction of around 2 per cent in 2012.
On a month on month basis, wages rose 0.1 per cent in December, the same increase as was registered in November.
Data earlier on Monday showed that consumer morale in January plunged to its lowest level since the series began in 1996, just a month before Italians go to the polls to elect a successor to Mario Monti's technocrat government.
indiatimes.com
Annual wage inflation edged up to 1.7 per cent in December from 1.6 per cent the month before, data showed on Monday, continuing a gradual upwards trend to post its highest rate since October 2011.
But that was still well below the annual inflation rate, which stood at 2.6 per cent in December, based on Italy's EU-harmonised price index.
Over the whole of 2012, wages rose at an average rate of 1.5 per cent from the year before, national statistics office ISTAT reported, compared with an average CPI rate of 3.3 per cent.
Wage inflation in 2012 was the lowest since the start of the historic series in 1983, ISTAT said. It added that the negative gap between wages and consumer price inflation last year was the widest since 1995.
Declining purchasing power has eroded consumer morale, causing what retail associations and think-tanks say is the deepest decline in consumer spending since World War Two.
The euro zone's third largest economy has been in recession since the middle of 2011 and most analysts expect gross domestic product to fall around 1 per cent this year, following a contraction of around 2 per cent in 2012.
On a month on month basis, wages rose 0.1 per cent in December, the same increase as was registered in November.
Data earlier on Monday showed that consumer morale in January plunged to its lowest level since the series began in 1996, just a month before Italians go to the polls to elect a successor to Mario Monti's technocrat government.
indiatimes.com
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