16/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - According to statistics published on Wednesday by Eurostat, the rise in hourly rates for labour in the euro zone reached 2.3% during the first quarter 2004, compared to the first quarter 2003. In the 25-member EU this rise is 3.4%. The lowest increases were noted in Austria (+0.2%), Portugal (+0.5%) and Germany (+1.5%) and the strongest rises were in Latvia (+11.4%), Slovakia (+8.1%) and the United Kingdom (+6.7%). In industry, the rise in hourly labour rates is...