Real wages in Belarus in 2017 could exceed those in 2016

According to the National Statistics Committee, in January 2017, nominal wage in Belarus totalled BYN 720.7, which was BYN 80.9 less than in December 2016. Real wages and salaries constituted 99.8%, which was due to a seasonal phenomenon and the end-of-year bonus payments common in December. In the coming months, wages are likely to grow, mainly due to layoffs in the construction, agriculture and some industrial production sectors. Bearing in mind the task to report USD 500 wages by the year-end, enterprises could manipulate with employee population by outsourcing the lowest paid workers or services. The decline in consumer inflation will have a positive impact on real wages, which could exceed those in 2016 as early as H1 2017.