Hungary’s real wage growth close to 10% in 2024

Piroska Szalai, an advisor to the prime minister, said real wage growth was over 9pc but closer to 10pc in 2024.

In an article published on the website of Mandiner on Tuesday, Szalai noted that average annual inflation had come in at 3.7pc. Using data from the Central Statistics Office (KSH), the figures showed that gross wage growth stood at 13.6pc in January-October.

Full-year wage growth is likely to be a little lower than that because of the base effect of a minimum wage rise in December 2023, but real wage growth should still be the third-highest since 1992, Szalai added.

Real wages climbed 12.3pc in 2002 and 10.3pc in 2017.

Szalai acknowledged that year-end CPI was a little high — an annualised 4.6pc — compared to the previous months, but said it came as no surprise because of base effects.

She noted that the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) had put average annual inflation for 2025 at 3.3pc-4.1pc in its latest forecast released in December.