Surging wages 'threaten economy's competitiveness'

China's surging wages and other costs are showing signs of undermining the competitiveness of the nation's economy, threatening its growth potential, the Asian Development Bank said.

Average inflation-adjusted wages have more than tripled in a decade, and non-wage costs for procedures such as hiring and firing have risen since the introduction of a 2008 labor law, the ADB said in a report published on Tuesday.

The labor market is being squeezed across the nation as the pool of working-age people shrank last year.