The paper studies the activity of 1 % palladium catalysts containing rare earth oxides (REOs) and alumina as a carrier in the hydrogenation of nitro compounds exemplified by nitrobenzene and o-nitro anisole. Under the liquid-phase hydrogenation conditions, these catalytic systems provide high selectivity of the process and a quantitative yield. It has been found that the partial replacement of Al2O3 with REO allows increasing the hydrogenation rate by 5–6 times, as compared with the reference catalyst and by 1.2–1.7 times as compared with the individual carrier. The oxide mixtures (REO and Al2O3) containing 20–40 % REO allow reaching the same hydrogenation rate with that over an REO-containing 1 % Pd catalyst.