The net average wage in Romania rose by 13.4% y/y in 2024, or by 7.4% y/y in real terms – more than double the 3.4% y/y real advance in 2023, according to data published by the statistics office INS.

Besides robust consumer lending, this pushed the retail sales to an outstanding +8.6% y/y advance in 2024, up from +1.6% y/y in 2023. Private consumption is seen at +5.4% y/y in the year, accelerating from 3.0% in 2023 – but it is expected to slow down to +2.5% y/y in 2025 due to slower advance of households’ earnings.

In 2024, the tight labour market and wage hikes in the budgetary sector pushed up the average net wages to a rate not much slower compared to 2023 (+15.4% y/y), although the inflation eased more significantly from 10.4% in 2023 to 5.5% in 2024.

Expressed in euros, the average net wage in Romania increased by 12.7% y/y to EUR 1,045 in 2024.

In Q4, the net wage posted slightly lower annual growth rates yet still in the double-digit range: +12% y/y, compared to 13%-14% y/y in Q1-Q3 (nominal terms).

For 2025, the state forecasting body projects a slower (+6.1% y/y) advance in the average nominal wage, partly driven by the constant wages in the budgetary sector. This would still be above the predicted average inflation (+4.4% y/y), but the net advance in wages would decelerate significantly.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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