The ONS published wage data to the end of February yesterday. There were no great surprises.
Both real total and regular pay fell on the year:
Real pay growth rates are declining:
But, because of industrial action public sector pay is not now quite so far behind:
But the overwhelming tale is of misery being imposed. And yet in the FT yesterday afternoon there was an article suggesting:
Pressures in the UK labour market are starting to ease, but wage growth has not slowed as much as economists expected, according to official data released on Tuesday.
This apparently will:
Hand [the] Bank of England a tough decision on interest rates
The question to ask is how much misery does the Bank of England plan to impose on the average UK household before they decide that they have caused enough harm to the millions now suffering in our economy, most especially as inflation rates are now expected to be falling rapidly?
I wish I could answer that question, but it seems that the sadists at the Bank want their pound of flesh and a great deal more before they will be satisfied.
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BoE refer to it as ‘removing demand’ from the economy, demand for our blatant and extravagant overspending on selfish things like food and heat.
The March CPI figure is still relatively high however April should start to see it dropping, noticeable that milk & eggs have started to drop in price and the media fueled salad shortage is over now and fuel is gradually dropping (not as fast as it should though).
I’m sure the Bank of England won’t be bothered by such trivial things like the people. They will be more interested in aping the Fed to maintain the sterling/dollar exchange rate to pay for imports and give our financial sector a slice of the extra earnings from World Bank and IMF loans. Or am I just being cynical?
You are being appropriately cynical
Nothing matters more to the BoE at the moment but to sustain the lie that high interest rates and low pay have some sort of positive effect on inflation and the pain is somehow worth it.
They are not even in any form of denial – they know but just do not care.
They totally ignore the spread of money in the economy and how it is the increasing reliance on credit creation and asset acquisition behaviour in the more affluent parts of the economy that are just as damaging.
It also ignores the issue that I perceive in that as transactions go down, operators seeks to obtain more value from each remaining transaction and put prices up anyway!!
Atavism is alive and well in government when we are crying out for new ideas.
Meanwhile, the corporate sector is making huge profits and seems to want to make more by giving, even more, lower than inflation wage rises. (did someone mention revolution?) if not then French-style mass protests may occur. “The Big One Big” organised by Extinction Rebellion on 21 – 24 April on climate justice may be the precursor.
The greatest pain would be caused by allowing inflation to let rip. The increases in interest rates (from ludicrously low levels) are necessary to bring inflation down to 2% or less. The criticism you should be levelling is to ask if interest rates were previously held artificially low for too long.
Tell me how raising Uk interest rates impacts price increases on imported goods inflated by the impact of war in UKraine, and Brexit?
If you can your comment makes essence.
If not, it is ridiculous.