United Kingdom wage growth climbs, unemployment dips

Parents buying their children new school uniforms helped to provide a modest boost in retail sales last month.

Yesterday’s official labour figures showed the fastest pace of growth in wages since early 2009, with total pay up 2.9 per cent in the three months to July.

According to ONS, “the average house price rose by more than £1,000 a week, leaping from £277,000 to £282,000, a new all-time high and 16.7% above the pre-financial crisis peak in 2007”.

Pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 2.9pc in the three months to July, up from 2.8pc in the three months to June, representing the strongest increase since the beginning of 2009.

The figures were in line with expectations, but suggest the economy is heading for “a soft patch in the third quarter”, said Howard Archer, at IHS Global Insight. The house price annual inflation was 5.6% in England, 0.3% in Wales, 7.4% in Northern Ireland and -1.3% in Scotland.

“With improving economic conditions sustaining a recovery in housing demand while supply remains tight, the mismatch between demand and supply continues to support house price growth”.

Clothing, textiles and leather product prices climbed 0.4% in the year to August, and edged up 0.3% from July to August. Many retailers have blamed poor sales on the past three months’ miserable weather.

Business leaders in Greater Birmingham said the fall demonstrates the continuing strength of the local economy. Carney said Wednesday that the decision on when to increase United Kingdom rates from 0.5 percent will come “into much sharper relief” around the turn of the year.

“Rather than stripping workers of their employment rights and taking thousands of pounds a year out of the pockets of millions of working families across the United Kingdom , the Government should be backing British workers to bring confidence and optimism back into our workforce”.

“This is a rate of increase that would normally worry policymakers into a pre-emptive hike in interest rates to avoid upward wage pressures feeding through to higher inflation”.

‘The Fed decision is important for the Bank of England.