Riyadh-An economic report expected an increase in employees’ wages in the Saudi industrial sector by 5 percent in 2017, at a consistent pace with the previous 2 years, according to the latest Salary Budget Planning Study released by Willis Towers Watson.

Based on the report, the inflation rate in the Kingdom this year is estimated at 4.7 percent, an increase from last year, when it was estimated at 2.2 percent.

However, the increase in the pay for employees across all industry sectors in 2015 and 2016 was 5 percent.

In 2017, the salary has been projected to increase by 4.6 percent in the region, in countries such as the UAE and Bahrain, while Lebanon will have the highest increase in pay growth 5.4 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait 5 percent, and Qatar 4.8 percent.

Laurent Leclere, senior consultant and data services lead for the Middle East at Towers Watson, said: “There are many factors that affect the employee attraction and retention such as the work environment, the managers they work with, health and insurance programs. The topmost factor however is the compensation that would also drive the employees’ performance.”

The report provides salary increase budget information for a large selection of economies across the globe, as well as projected inflationary and country GDP movements for the same period of time.

On a global level, the report shows employees in Asian countries are predicted to benefit from some of the highest pay rises with a regional average real-pay increase of 3.8 percent, followed by EMEA at 1.9 percent and South America at 1.8 percent. North America has some of the lowest projected increases at an average of 1.6 percent.