Gap in Incomes and Productivity vis-à-vis Western Europe Narrows. Real Wage Gap and Labour Costs for the Whole Economy in Austria

Over the last two decades Austria was able to reduce the productivity gap vis-à-vis the FRG as well as the EC by 10 percentage points. Thus, in 1988 labour productivity in Austria was as high as in the EC. In the eighties the room for real wage increases was not fully exploited: Real wages grew more slowly than productivity (adjusted for terms of trade effects). Wage increases were dampenend by the slackness in the labour market and the deterioration in the international competitive position. As a result of the depreciation of a number of foreign currencies, unit labour costs (on a dollar basis) in the total economy increased faster than a trade-weighted average of unit labour costs (also on a dollar basis) in other countries.