RIGA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- For the first time, the monthly average gross wage in Latvia has risen above 1,000 euros (1,170 U.S. dollars), the national statistics office reported on Wednesday.
The latest data released by the statistics office shows that in the second quarter of 2018 the monthly average gross wage grew by 8.4 percent on the same period a year ago to 1,004 euros.
However, wage growth slowed from the first quarter of 2018 when wages climbed 8.6 percent on the first quarter of 2017.
Over the past year, wages in the public and private sectors have been rising roughly at the same rate, by 8.4 percent and 8.5 percent respectively. In the second quarter of this year, the monthly gross wage averaged at 991 euros in the private sector and 1,035 euros in the public sector.
The average net wage in the second quarter of this year reached 743 euros a month in Latvia.
The real wage increase, considering the annual inflation rate of 2.4 percent, was 7.4 percent.
Commenting on the latest wage data, Latvian Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens called the 1,000 euros a "psychologically and financially strong landmark".
The economics minister also hopes that this might help promote remigration as the average wage in Latvia has now come close to the minimum wages in countries that have become home to many emigrants who left Latvia during the economic crisis of 2009 and later.
