April 12 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria and Romania remained the two EU member states with the lowest hourly labour costs in 2018, despite a year-on-year increase, Eurostat data shows.
Bulgaria recorded the lowest hourly labour costs in the EU and among member states outside the euro area - 10.5 levs (5.4 euro), even though remunerations in the country rose 6.9% year-on-year in 2018, Eurostat said in a statement on Thursday.
Among EU-28, Romania recorded the second lowest lowest hourly labour costs of 31.9 lei (6.9 euro), despite being the EU member state outside the euro area that had the highest increase of 13.3 % year-on-year in 2018.
In comparison, in 2017 Bulgaria and Romania were at the bottom of the Eurostat statistics with hourly labour costs 9.6 levs and 28.9 lei, respectively.
Eurostat estimated the average hourly labour costs for the previous year at 27.4 euro in the EU and 30.6 euro in the euro area, marking a significant gap between EU member states with the lowest estimates and the country at top of the statistics, Denmark, with hourly labour costs of 43.5 euro.
The estimated hourly labour costs include wages and salaries as well as non-wage costs like social contributions paid by employers.
The National Statistical Institute said last month that hourly labour costs in Bulgaria rose by 5.1% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to preliminary data.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)