BERLIN, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Real wages in Germany kept growing during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 in an encouraging sign of the country's lasting economic momentum, official figures published on Thursday by the Federal Statistical Office showed.
Real wages were up by 1.1 percent between January and March compared to the same period last year. As a consequence, wages have now experienced an "uninterrupted series of successive annual increases since the first quarter of 2010", a statement by the Wiesbaden-based agency read.
Real wages growth during the two previous quarters was still measured at a lower rate of 0.5 percent and 0.7. The subsequent uptick recorded in Q1 2018 occurred against a backdrop of a slowing expansion of gross domestic product (GDP) in Germany and largely owed to a significant rise in the level of remuneration paid out to workers.
Following the signing of several new collective wage agreements in the public and private sector, earnings received by German workers soared by 2.7 percent between January and March. During the same period, consumer price inflation was only measured at 1.6 percent, a circumstance which provided a significant boost to household finances.
Speaking to Xinhua, labor expert Christoph Schroeder of the German Economic Institute (IW), pointed out that "so far, the labor market has coped well with this development." At the same time, however, Schroeder did no longer see any "need to catch up on wage developments."
Collective wages are widespread and legally binding in Germany as part of the country's "social partnership" model. The arrangements form part of a post-war political settlement between employer- and employee representatives which granted workers significant rights with regards to their labor conditions and their role in the cooperative management of companies.
Broken down by economic sector, the highest rises in earnings in Q1 2018 were record in "real estate activities" (plus 5.1 percent), ahead of "free-lance professional, scientific and technical services" (plus 3.8 percent) and gastronomy (plus 3.5 percent). Economic experts widely anticipate that private domestic consumption will make an increasingly important contribution to GDP growth in Germany in the course of the year as exports fall due to growing U.S. protectionism.
