Salaries across Pakistan expected to decrease in 2020: report

ISLAMABAD: The people of Pakistan are the only nation in the Asia-Pacific who will record a substantial decrease in salaries made next year on the back of rising inflation and depreciation of the Pakistani rupee, according to a report released on Tuesday by mobility consultancy ECA International, Geo News reported on Thursday.

The Salary Trend Report published by the group contends that the average real salary increase in Pakistan is expected to be negative, and employees will likely be worse off than they were last year. Lee Quane, Regional Director Asia at ECA International, has surmised these trends. Quane explained, “The average real salary increase in Pakistan is forecast to be -3.0%, meaning that employees will be worse off than they were last year. Despite the nominal increase staying at a relatively high 10.0%, inflation has shot up as the rupee has depreciated."

He added that the Inflation in Pakistan is forecast to reach 13.0% in 2020, exceeding the nominal increase and leaving workers out of pocket compared to 2019. However, the same is not true for other Asia-Pacific countries, especially neighbor and arch-rival India.

According to the report, India topped the table for average real salary increases in Asia, but now also tops the table globally for 2020. The average real salary increase is set to be 5.4% for workers in India, which is four times the rise expected in Hong Kong.

“Salaries in India are set to rise significantly, with the 5.4% increase almost four times as high as the expected increase in Hong Kong. Despite inflation rising slightly from 2019 and the economy slowing slightly, though workers can still expect more increases" said Quane.

Workers in China are set to see a real salary increase of 3.6% in 2020, while UK workers will receive a lower real salary increase in 2020 as compared to the previous year. Overall, the global average salary increase stands at 1.4% and the Asia-Pacific average increase is 3.2%.