Luxembourg, 10/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Total hourly labour costs in the whole economy of the Euro-zone grew by 3.5% in nominal terms in the fourth quarter of 2000 compared with the same period in 1999. Eurostat, which has just released these figures, comments that in the EU as a whole (EU15), the rise was 3.6%. With +1%, Italy recorded the smallest annual rise, compared with France and the United Kingdom which saw the largest rises at + 5% and + 4.6 % respectively. In industry, total hourly labour costs in the Euro-zone rose by 3.4% and 3.5% in the EU15. The smallest annual rise in costs was in Italy (+ 0.6%), while the biggest increase was registered in the United Kingdom (+4.5%), followed by Denmark and the Netherlands (both 3.6%). The biggest increase in wages was in France (+ 6.1%) and the smallest in Italy (+ 2.1%).