Czech companies expect 3.26 pct wage growth this year

Czech companies expected average wages to grow by 3.26 percent this year in the last quarter of 2017, while they anticipated an increase of slightly more than 2.5 percent in the previous quarters, according to a poll conducted by the Confederation of Industry among 150 member non-financial companies at the end of 2017.

The Confederation of Industry cooperated with the Czech National Bank (CNB) on the survey. At the end of last year, workforce costs rose significantly, and a lack of employees became a more burning issue for companies. A total of 52 percent of entrepreneurs thought the situation concerning labour costs worsened in Q4, while it was 39 percent in Q3.
The share of those thinking that the qualified workforce shortage issue deteriorated reached 54 percent, which is the highest figure since the poll's begining. This indicator was at minimum 9 percent at the turn of 2012.
Respondents considered both domestic and foreign demand positive. However, the economic growth raised prices of material, Confederation of Industry economic policy head Bohuslav Cizek said.
Positive outlook of entrepreneurs reflected a mildly positive development in investment activity expectations. Loan availability remained good and 70 percent of companies expect it to stay stable in the future.
The share of exports with a safeguard against exchange rate risk rose moderately, reaching 34.1 percent. Companies said the state did not attempt to create a development supporting environment, and that business conditions did not improve significantly. A total of 31 percent of companies thought the bureaucracy situation became worse, which is what 26 percent thought about legislation quality and 11 percent about transport infrastructure.

Source: CTK