TALLINN - Fresh statistics from Estonia and Lithuania show that average wages and salaries soared over the first quarter, indicating the inflationary pressures in both countries will continue to be felt. The Estonian Statistical Office announced that the average gross wages climbed 15.7 percent to 8,591 kroons (549 euros) over the first three months of 2006 's the biggest rise in eight years. The average hourly pay of full and part time workers, by contrast, was 13.8 percent higher from that of Q1 2005.
In Q1 this year the average gross monthly wages increased the most in fishery, by 62.2 percent, and the least in power engineering, gas and water supply (by 4.4 percent), while the rise in the average hourly wages was the highest in fishery (57.2 percent).
In Lithuania, average gross salaries rose 13.2 percent in the first quarter to reach 1,437 litas (416 euros), but shrank by 1.1 percent from the last quarter of 2005, the statistics department reported.
In the public sector, the average gross salary rose by 12.1 percent year-on-year to 1,501 litas, while in the private sector it grew by 14.4 percent to 1395 litas.
The annual growth in average salaries was spurred by Lithuania's minimum monthly wage increase to 550 litas in July 2005, a hike of minimum hourly wages to 3.28 litas and a rise in healthcare and social workers' salaries.
Average net salaries country-wide soared by 11.7 percent year-on-year to almost 1,020 litas in the first quarter. In the public sector, the average grew by 10.8 percent to almost 1,061 litas and in the private sector by 12.8 percent to 993 litas.
