The flooding increases, but prices are more expensive. A real salary is worth 150 euros less than 2020

The average monthly real salary is indexed with inflation (2020=100) by INSTAT. This means that with about 86 thousand dollars, an Albanian today buys the same goods that he bought for about 72 thousand dollars in 2020.

Although citizens' wages have increased in monetary value, their purchasing power is dropping rapidly. In the last quarter of 2025, the gap between the real and nominal wage was -17% and increased last year. At the beginning of 2023, this difference was lower, with only 12 %. Since the base of comparison is 2020 each quarter reflects accumulated inflation, further increasing the gap between real and nominal pay.

These data show that the standard of living is facing pressure, as higher wages have failed to neutralise the cost of living, leaving the consumer with an apparently weaker purchasing power than in the early decade.

The price hikes are moving at a much faster pace than the increase in income.

Another factor is the delay in labour market response. Although employers are increasing nominal wages to maintain staff, these increases are often unable to compensate fully for the expensive living that occurred in the previous months.

Fiscal policies also play a negative role in the phenomenon where nominal wage growth transfers the individual to a higher tax site, causing much of the increase to go to taxes, while real purchasing power continues to shrink.

Rounding strikes in supply chains and currency instability have led the real value of money to decline, reports Monitor, Periscope broadcast.

The difference between real and nominal wages is also deepening because their growth came, not from productivity to economy, but from pressures of the workforce. The rise in wages with decisions stimulated the rising prices by actually reducing the real value of wages.