Negotiated Wage Growth In the Euro Area decreased to 2.38 percent in the first quarter of 2025 from 4.12 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Euro Area Negotiated Wage Growth.

Wages In the Euro Area increased 3.40 percent in March of 2025 over the same month in the previous year. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Euro Area Wage Growth - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The ECB wage tracker is the result of a Eurosystem partnership currently comprising the European Central Bank and seven euro area National Central Banks: Deutsche Bundesbank, Bank of Greece, Banco de España, Banque de France, Banca d’Italia, De Nederlandsche Bank, and Osterreichische Nationalbank. It is based on a highly granular database of active collective bargaining agreements for Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria. Netherlands, and Austria. The wage tracker should be considered as only one of many possible sources that can help to assess wage pressures in the euro area. These are not wage growth forecasts, as they only indicate wage pressures that mechanically arise from the collective bargaining agreements already in place. The Eurosystem and ECB staff macroeconomic projections remain the most comprehensive assessment of the wage outlook for the euro area.

The total assets of the European Central Bank (ECB) showed overall growth from 2012 to 2023, despite a slight decline in the final year of this period. In 2023, the ECB's total assets stood at 674.5 billion euros, marking a decrease of approximately 25 billion euros compared to the previous year.

The inflation rate in Germany was 1.35 percent in 2019. The current rate meets the European Central Bank’s target rate, which is “below, but close to, 2 percent.” Many central bankers favor inflation between 2 and 3 percent, but Germans in particular would rather risk deflation than too much inflation.

Causes of inflation

Central bankers like low, stable inflation because this is a sign of a growing economy. When the economy grows, workers become more productive and spend more, and prices slowly rise. Monetary policy can cause inflation, but Germany has given this responsibility to the European Central Bank (ECB). Importantly, inflation expectations affect inflation, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The German context

During the eurozone crisis, German politicians were advocating for the ECB to raise interest rates quickly. This would have reduced inflation, possibly causing deflation, but would have presented another hurdle for the struggling Greek economy. This is because of the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s, when Germans carried their pay home in wheelbarrows because the banknotes had lost so much value. Ever since, Germans often warn that inflation harms pensioners and that personal provisions are necessary in any case. Fortunately for them, this statistic forecasts stable, modest inflation that does not alarm many economists.

The European banking sector showed significant disparities in net interest margins (NIM) during the last quarter 2024. Poland and Hungary topped the rankings with NIMs of *** percent and *** percent, respectively. In contrast, several Western European nations reported markedly lower figures: Germany and Denmark at *** percent, France at *** percent. NIM, a key indicator of bank profitability, measures the difference between interest income earned from lending activities and interest paid to depositors, expressed as a percentage of interest-earning assets. Profitability and stability Low profitability has been highlighted several times by the ECB as a key risk to the financial stability of the Euro area. There are several ways to examine profitability in the banking sector, such as the cost-to-income ratio. Prolonged low profitability can have a knock-on effect on an economy’s growth. On the other hand, sustained periods of higher than average profitability can also mean trouble, as was seen in the period running up to the financial crisis. Other key measures There are several other metrics that can also be used. Return on equity (ROE), which divides net income by shareholders' equity, looks at how well a company’s management is using its assets to create profits. Another key measure of a bank's profitability is to look at the return on assets (ROA), which divides a bank’s net income by its total assets during a given period.