Wage inflation cools down
19 November 2009
Inflationary pressure from the country's labour markets has moderated in recent months, the South African Reserve Bank says in its November Monetary Policy Review.
Wage inflation slowed to 11.5 percent in the first quarter and 8.7 percent in the second quarter of 2009, the Bank said on Wednesday.
Measured in terms of the year-on-year changes in nominal remuneration per worker in the formal non-agricultural sector, it recorded just over 12 percent in each of the quarters of 2008.
Labour productivity, measured as the ratio of real value added to employment in the formal non-agricultural sector, rose by 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, before declining by 0.5 percent in the second quarter.
Economy-wide unit labour cost inflation, measured as wage inflation adjusted for productivity changes in the formal non-agricultural sector, therefore declined to 11.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009 and 9.3 percent in the second quarter.
It recorded a year-on-year increase of around 12.6 percent in the final quarter of 2008.
"The average level of wage settlements reported for the first nine months of 2009 by the Andrew Levy wage settlement survey was 9.4 percent, suggesting that wage settlements are falling slowly when compared to the 9.8 percent recorded for the year 2008," the Bank said.
Settlements had ranged from five percent in the paper/printing sector to 12.3 percent in the food/agriculture sector over the first nine months of 2009.
Sapa
