OREANDA-NEWS. May 02, 2012. Last year, the purchasing power of Estonian and Latvian workers grew (salary growth exceed the rate of inflation), while the real salary of Lithuanian workers continued to fall for the third year in a row, as indicated by the economic analysis of the Baltic households prepared by SEB (Baltic Household Outlook), reported the press-centre of SEB.

Despite the growth of gross salary, the high level of inflation has had a considerable effect on real salaries. Compared to 2010, real salaries in Latvia have risen by 0.1 per cent per year, whereas growth was 0.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2011. In Estonia, real salaries grew by 2.1 per cent at the same time, which represented an increase for the second consecutive quarter. This halted the decrease of real salaries, which had been a reality for Estonia for about three years. Meanwhile, the real salaries of Lithuanian workers have dropped for 12 consecutive quarters ? if the fourth quarter of 2011 is compared to the year before, real salaries decreased by 1.5 per cent.
At today’s press conference, Triin Messimas, development manager of private loans at SEB, noted that in the past two years Estonian salaries had increased the most out all of the Baltic Republics. Salaries in the fourth quarter of 2011 increased, compared to the same quarter of the previous year, by 6.3 per cent in Estonia, 4.5 per cent in Latvia and 2.5 per cent in Lithuania.

“If the gross and net salaries in the Baltic States are compared, the highest average gross salary was in Estonia, exceeding the Latvian gross salary by 28 per cent and the Lithuanian gross salary by 37 per cent. The average gross salary in Latvia was seven per cent higher than in Lithuania. “At the same time, due to a high tax burden, Latvian salaries after taxes continue to be the lowest”, said Messimas.

The average monthly salary in Latvia was EUR 676, EUR 630 in Lithuania and EUR 865 in Estonia.

The Baltic Household Outlook is available for review here: www.seb.ee/BHO_aprill_2012