© RTL Archiv
Employees in Luxembourg could see their wages change up to three times in 2023 according to new forecasts from STATEC on Monday.
The next wage increase was initially scheduled to take place at the end of 2022, however, this was changed in the latest tripartite agreement signed between the government and its social partners.
According to a new forecast that includes the tripartite measures, published by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (STATEC) on Monday, the next index tranche will have to be made in the first quarter of 2023, followed by the postponed one from this year on 1 April 2023, and another one in the fourth quarter.
The STATEC has also predicted two other scenarios, but these will both highly depend on the evolution of fuel prices. According to the “high scenario”, the additional payment would already occur in the third quarter of 2023 if prices were to rise again. If prices were to fall or the euro were to lose value again in 2023, the third indexation would be dropped in what the Institute labels a “low scenario”.
The new government measures initially allowed the STATEC to revise its inflation forecast made at the beginning of September downwards. But, the recent surge in fuel and heating oil prices, “which saw unexpected increases in October” and the “more persistent depreciation of the euro against the dollar” mean that the Institute has finally revised inflation upwards again.
STATEC now expects inflation to be 6.4% in 2022, slightly lower than the 6.6% forecast in September. The national statistics office also predicts 3.4% inflation for 2023, compared to 6.6% in previous estimations.
Core inflation (excluding petroleum products) would also slow down, according to the new calculations, and reach 4.4% instead of 4.3% in 2022, and 3.7% instead of 4.9% in 2023. Overall, it is expected at this stage that “the world economy will slow down while inflation will remain high in 2023.”