gull“There should be no room for conventional salary increases”
This indexation is notably due to rising inflation. This increased to 4.3% in 2024, mainly due to higher food inflation (mainly due to tobacco) and a rise in energy prices. The National Bank also points? the higher cost of service vouchers, especially in Flanders. “A fifth of the salary cost higher than expected is the consequence of these more expensive service vouchers. Even if they individually cost only one euro more, this represents an increase of more than 10%”explained Geert Langenus, chief economist at the National Bank.
Pierre Wunsch (BNB): “We should encourage the electrification of heating”
Thus, with indexation and the rise in wage costs, the wage gap with neighboring countries widens a little further and takes longer to close. It should still not be by 2027, estimates the BNB.
However, it is provided in the law that this salary gap must be eliminated. “This means that there should be no room for conventional salary increases”beyond indexation, over the next three years, declared the governor of the National Bank, Pierre Wunsch. The latter specifies, however, that it is not the BNB which defines what salaries will be in the future. These are negotiated between unions and employers, based on figures from the Central Economic Council.
