Household perceptions accumulated their third consecutive annual increase and already exceed the average recorded prior to the pandemic.
He real average household income in Uruguay closed the year 2023 with an increase of 2.8% in the annual average, compared to the previous year 2022. In this way, the real income of households accumulates its third consecutive annual increase and already exceeds the average by just over 1% registered in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
In the last quarter of 2023, average real income rose 0.6% compared to the same quarter last year, with a notable increase in Montevideo (more than 6%) and a significant drop in the rest of the territory (4.5%). This difference can be explained to a large extent by the impact that the Argentine crisis has had on trade in the coast of the country and in some other areas of the interior, with many Uruguayans diverting consumption to the neighboring country due to the strong price difference, which reduced commercial activity and income in general, in local territory.
The evolution of average household income basically depends on two factors. On the one hand, the evolution of real salary, which has had a significant increase in recent months due to the decrease in inflation and nominal adjustments, clearly above the price index. In such a way that in the first 11 months of 2023 the real salary rose 3.7% compared to the same period in 2022.
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The employment rate rose to 58.1% in 2023
On the other hand, employment. In this case, the employment rate annual average went from 57.1% to 58.1% between 2022 and 2023, which—in percentage terms—is an increase of almost 2% year-on-year. Both factors—salary and employment—came together to explain the aforementioned 2.8% real annual increase in household income.
In its quarterly report on household income, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) It also includes measurements of the median of said variable, that is, the figure that divides the set of households in two, once they are ordered by income from lowest to highest. In such a way that in the October-December quarter of 2023, while the average current income was 89,283 pesos, the median income was 70,280 pesos. In real terms, the average rose 0.6% compared to the same quarter last year, while the median fell 0.7%. In the annual average, however, the increase was similar in both measures (2.8% and 2.9% real respectively).
Source: Ambito
