Salaries in Greece continue to slide, dipping 1.4 pct in Q2

Salaries in Greece continued to slide in the second quarter of 2014, posting a drop of just over 1 percent compared to slight uptick of 2 percent in Q1, provisional data published by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) on Friday showed.

ELSTAT's wage index - without seasonal adjustment - for the second quarter of 2014 recorded a decrease of 1.4 percent compared with the corresponding period last year, coming on top of a decrease of 5.05 percent on average in 2011, 7.4 percent in 2012, 6.55 percent in 2013 and 1.35 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

Greece's adjusted (seasonal and working days) index, meanwhile, is moving in the opposite direction to the EU28 average, ELSTAT data showed.

Wages in the second quarter of 2013 dropped in Greece by 7.5 percent when the EU28 average rose by 1.2 percent. In the third quarter of 2013, Greek salaries declined by 2.9 percent and rose by an average of 1.4 percent in the European Union, while in the second quarter of this year, average EU salaries rose 1.2 percent against a decline also of 1.2 percent in Greece.

The overall decline in Greek wages currently stands at 23.8 percent since 2010.