The slowdown in the pace of wage growth in the Slovak economy continued in the fourth quarter of 1998, when the average monthly wage of employees grew to 11,212 Slovak crowns ($280). Compared with the last quarter of 1997, the average nominal wage grew by 8.4%. However, when consumer price rises are taken into account, real wage growth was only 2.4%, the Slovak Statistics Bureau reported on March 16.
From the viewpoint of individual sectors, the financial sector reported the highest average monthly wage (20,706 crowns), followed by power, gas and water distribution (15,331 crowns), the public sector (13,805 crowns) and the R&D, services and real estate sectors (12,875 crowns). As usual, the lowest wages were found in the education sector (8,934 crowns), the hotel and restaurant industry (9,172 crowns) and agriculture (9,183 crowns).
The average nominal monthly wage for 1998 was 10,003 crowns, up 9.6% from the previous year. In real figures, the growth was only 2.7%.
