Greece Posts Falling Wages and Weakening Purchasing Power

New data from Eurostat reveals that the economic climate for Greek citizens is more challenging than the government claims, with Greece being the only country to record a drop in employees’ daily wage in Q3 2024.

The reality contradicts the government’s narrative of wage increases, points out OT.gr. Moreover, Greece remains second to last in the EU in terms of purchasing power of its citizens for 2023- just above neighboring Bulgaria.

Only EU Country Where Wages are in Decline
Hourly wages in Greece fell by 2.9% in Q3 2024, while the rest of the Eurozone saw increases between 1% and 17.1%, coming in at a Eurozone average of 4.4% and EU average of 5.1% .

Additionally, other labor cost components, such as contributions, also dropped by 1.7%, leading to an overall labor cost reduction of 2.6%.

In contrast, labor costs in the Eurozone and EU (including contributions), increased by 5.2% and 5.3%.

Taking a closer look at EU and Eurozone countries, wage increases ranged between 1% in Luxembourg and 17.1% in Romania.

Purchasing Power Near Bottom
Greece ranks second to last in the EU in terms of GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) for 2023, just above Bulgaria. The per capita GDP in Greece reached 68% of the EU average, up slightly from 67% in 2022 but still among the lowest in the bloc.

Rising Costs and Limited Savings
Higher prices continue to erode Greek citizens’ purchasing power and results indicate that Greek households may have lower savings.

This conclusion is derived from the fact that Greece posts higher consumption than other EU countries, which can be connected to lower savings rates.

This aligns with other studies showing limited financial reserves among Greek households, highlights OT.