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Wednesday, 17.04.2024, 23:45
IMF advises to Lithuania to pause minimum wage hikes
Algirdas Butkevicius and Christoph Klingen. Vilnius, 16.03.2016. Photo: lrv.lt |
“… to preserve the gains of the past you have to make sure that wage growth does not go ahead too much and in this context we would advise you to pause minimum wage hikes which have been steep since 2012,” Christoph Klingen, chief of the IMF Staff Mission to Lithuania, said at a news conference on March 16th.
The growth of the country’s economy this year should accelerate to 2.7% as external environment became less of a factor to the growth of exports, inflation was low and sometimes even negative and public finances were finally in good shape, he added.
Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius assured that the government would take into account those recommendations and said that the Cabinet would not rush with a new minimum wage hike.
“Earlier optimism that the minimum wage should be raised as often as possible is no longer here. It’s also necessary to consider the economic situation in regions hence we’ll act very responsibly,” he said at the news conference.