Yolanda Diaz, Department of Labor
Banca March: Uncertainty in economic policy and rising labor costs, two concerns of Bank of Spain Governor Hernández de Cos, in the political context of business, the need for improved regulatory quality and stronger business confidence. Point out the need to be negatively affected by uncertain situations.
All this is accompanied by an increase in non-wage labor costs (see graph), which ranks among the top among European countries, reducing the competitiveness of Spanish companies. As the Governor warned, the combination of these two factors could have a negative impact on investment and future growth.
In the euro area, personnel costs increase primarily due to factors other than wages, such as social contributions and taxes. For the monetary union as a whole, year-on-year growth in Q4 2023 was 4.2% compared to 3.1%, with total cost growth of 3.4%. The Spanish case is worth mentioning. Non-wage growth is 8.3%, while wage growth is 4.2%. Therefore, the total cost increase was 1.8 percentage points higher for him than for the euro area as a whole. In contrast, labor cost growth in France, Germany and Italy was lower than in the euro area, at 2.8%, 2.5% and -0.1% respectively. Wages were also suppressed further, to 2.7%, 2.2%, and -0.1%, respectively.
