No agreement on productivity for the 2024 minimum wage increase; Banco de la República forecasts year-end inflation of over 9.8%

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Bogotá.-At the minimum wage negotiating table there is no agreement on labor productivity, and it will be until Tuesday that the first proposals from employers and unions will be known.

For the employers, the labor productivity data to be taken is that of total factors, which was negative by one percent.

For their part, unions expect that productivity per hour worked, which was the only positive figure, at 0.76%, will be taken.

Today, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), supported the figures of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which as of November 2023, dropped from 10.48% to 10.15%.

This data is key for the increase because it marks the negotiation floor, i.e., the proposals are based on it. However, it is also important as a closing CPI, so the projections are taken into account.

Today the Bank of the Republic delivered the inflation projection for the end of the year, which is close to 9.8%.

With this assumption, businessmen will push for an increase of no more than 10%, while unions will ask, as it usually happens, for a much higher increase.

The Government will have to review the proposals, which will be made known tomorrow, Tuesday. It is known that the Ministry of Labor also expects an increase higher than 10%, but it will have to be measured so that it is not much higher than the CPI at the end of the year.