(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank will regularly make available one of its most valued trackers of wage increases in the euro zone, providing insight into the analysis that shapes monetary-policy decisions.
The indicator will be published at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays that follow Governing Council interest-rate meetings, the ECB said Wednesday in a statement. It had flagged its intention to do so in March.
Its latest update suggests wage pressures will ease over the course of next year, with growth anticipated to peak at 5.4% at end-2024. That’s the highest reading since the series began in 2013, the ECB said.
“The ECB wage tracker is a valuable tool for understanding negotiated wage dynamics in the euro area, which have reached an all-time high following the post-pandemic reopening and inflation surge but are expected to ease in 2025,” ECB economists said in a blog accompanying the data.
“The information from the wage tracker informs monetary-policy discussions about negotiated wages and their future trajectory,” they said, adding that the tracker isn’t a forecast and should be interpreted with caution.
The gauge currently covers developments in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece and Austria — seven of the euro area’s 20 economies. It’s timelier than other indicators of pay growth, such as compensation per employee or another in-house indicator of negotiated salaries.
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