September 21 (SeeNews) - Hourly labour costs in Bulgaria increased by 14.4% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Wednesday, citing preliminary data.
In the review period, salary costs rose by an annual 14.6%, while other labour costs climbed by 13.5%, the NSI said in a statement.
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Hourly labour costs grew the most in the services sector – by 16.8%, followed by the industry sector and construction, with increases of 15% and 11.5%, respectively.
In terms of economic activities, the highest growth rate, of 22.5%, was recorded in administrative and support services. Arts, entertainment and recreation as well as other service activities showed an increase of 19.4%. These were followed by the categories wholesale and retail trade as well as repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, both of which registered rises of 18.2%.
With salary costs growth of 14.6%, Bulgaria comes second in the EU after Hungary, which registered a rise of 14.9% in the second quarter. Increases of over 10% were recorded in four more EU countries – Romania, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia, according to recently published data by Eurostat.