Britain’s wage growth remains strong amid high inflation

London: Wages in the UK are still rising at record highs, official figures showed Tuesday, as inflation remains stubbornly high.

The Office for National Statistics said that wages, excluding bonus payments, rose by 7.3 per cent in the three months to May, unchanged over the previous three-month period and matching the highest rate since records began in 2001.

The agency’s director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said that due to high inflation “the real value of weekly earnings are still falling, although now at its slowest rate since the end of 2021”.

Though inflation has fallen from its peak of over 10 per cent at the end of last year, it remains elevated at 8.7 per cent. The failure of inflation to fall as anticipated has stoked concerns that the Bank of England will continue to raise interest rates in the coming months rather than take a pause.

The central bank lifted its main interest rate to a 15-year high of 5 per cent last month, which has led to a sharp increase in mortgage rates.

Elsewhere, the statistics agency found that the unemployment rate in the UK rose to 4 per cent. Economists had anticipated an unchanged reading of 3.8 per cent.