Frankfurt, Germany: Wages in Germany rose by 2.5 percent in real or price-adjusted terms last year, the biggest increase in eight years, thanks to the low level of inflation, official data showed on Thursday.

“According to preliminary quarterly data, the real wage index in Germany rose by 2.5 percent in 2015, the steepest increase since this index began to be calculated in 2008,” the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.

On a nominal basis, wages increased by 2.8 percent last year and inflation stood at 0.3 percent, the statisticians calculated.

In 2014, real wages in Germany increased by 1.7 percent.

Destatis said it could not yet quantify the full impact on the index from the national minimum wage.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, introduced a legal minimum wage of 8.50 euros ($9.40) per hour from January 1, 2015.

Nevertheless, “evidence suggests that the pay of employees with below-average wages saw large nominal increases,” the office said.

For example, the gross monthly wage of untrained workers rose by 4.1 percent last year, it said.

Destatis also noted that different rates of wage increases were seen in eastern and western Germany.

While employees in eastern Germany saw their pay increase by 3.9 percent, wages of their west German counterparts rose by 2.5 percent.

Economic growth in Germany is traditionally powered by exports, but domestic demand has recently taken over as the main growth driver.