The effects of raising the minimum monthly salary to 1,000 litas (EUR 289.85) from January 1 are difficult to evaluate now, Nerijus Mačiulis, the bank’s chief economist, has said at a news conference on Wednesday.
According to the bank, the jobless rate registered in March was lower than a year ago and the number of vacancies grew to 22,000.
“We are rather cautious in our assessment of labor market trends and the effects of the minimum monthly wage on the labor market… The increase had no effects on job creation, at least the creation of jobs for skilled labor,” Mačiulis said.
However, it should not encourage the politicians to consider further raising of minimum monthly wages since the ratio between the minimum wage and the average pay was 46.8 percent, he said.
“Obviously, the problem is not with the minimum monthly wage, but with low average pay,” the economist said.
Swedbank also sticks to its forecasts for Lithuania’s economic growth and expects the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 4 percent in both 2013 and 2014.
“We keep the forecasts unchanged for both this year and next year and believe that Lithuania’s economy will grow by 4 percent,” Mačiulis says.
Inflation forecast for 2013 has been revised down to 2.5 percent. However, the bank believes that the growth of consumer prices may accelerate again next year and estimates that the probability of Lithuania complying with a respective Maastricht criterion does not exceed 50 percent.
