“Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits” Grew to $2.67B by November 2014

According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the item “Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits” of government spending, which mainly includes the cost of basic salaries, allowances and indemnities, increased by 6.27% in the first 11 months of 2014, to $2.67B compared to $2.52B in the same period of 2013. Salaries and wages, which constituted the largest component of the government primary expenditures, saw its share rise from 28% to 32% by November 2014.

Basic salaries, which constituted 73.63% of “Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits”, augmented by 3.60% year-on-year (y-o-y) to $1.97B by November 2014. Salaries of military personnel (63.92% of basic salaries) and education personnel (25.64% of basic salaries) grew yearly by 5.68% and 1.33% to $1.26B and $504.81M, respectively, and were behind the jumping in total basic salaries. However, the increases were marginally offset by the 2.51% decrease in salaries for civil personnel (10.48% of total salaries) to $206.30M.

Similarly, “Allowance” went up by 8.52% y-o-y to $384.49M mainly on the back of allowances for the army, which experienced a yearly 8.37% upturn to $352.22M by November 2014.

In contrast “Indemnities” shrunk by an annual 2.60% to $124.05M, over the first 11 months of the year. In details, indemnities to military personnel ticked up 2.78% y-o-y to $49.08M, but were countered by the 8.77% yearly decline in indemnities to education personnel to $34.49M.

Basic and Total Salaries of Public Sector Employees ($M)

Source: MoF