Belgium experienced the largest increase in purchasing power in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

Spurred by a post-coronavirus recovery and unprecedented energy prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, consumer prices rose sharply in 2022. In the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, inflation peaked at an average of 10.7 percent in October. This is evident from the statistics published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Tuesday.

The fact that life has become much more expensive has eroded the purchasing power of the population in almost all countries. Compared to the first quarter of 2022, real wages in the first three months of this year were 3.8 percent lower on average in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Hungarians (-15.6%), Latvians (-13.4%) and Czechs (-10.4%) had the biggest loss in purchasing power.

But four countries bucked the trend and saw a real rise in wages. Belgium – up by 2.9 per cent – is the absolute anomaly, supported by an automatic wage index. Growth was limited in the Netherlands (+0.4%) and Israel (+0.6%), and purchasing power increased by 1.7% in Costa Rica.

In nominal terms, three other countries saw higher wage increases than Belgium (+10.1 per cent). These are Lithuania (+13.6%), Estonia (+11.4%) and Poland (+10.8%). Since inflation in those countries was still much higher than in Belgium, the population there in general lost purchasing power (respectively -4.9%, -5.8% and -7%).