(Bloomberg) -- Euro-area labor-cost increases slowed at the end of last year, an outcome that is likely to provide encouragement for European Central Bank policymakers who are studying the strength of wages as a key input for their decision on when to cut interest rates. Hourly employment expenses rose 3.4% in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier, according to Eurostat data. That’s the lowest in more than a year. 

--With assistance from Barbara Sladkowska.

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