Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Ahead of the Bank of England interest rate announcement, we have a new healthcheck on Britain’s jobs market.
And it shows that wage growth has slowed slightly, while unemployment is a litte higher than a year ago.
“On the one hand, the UK economy continues to trundle along at nothing more than a snail’s pace, hamstrung by acute trade uncertainties and fragile business confidence ahead of impending tax hikes.
“Yet, with most of the MPC appearing concerned about nagging upside risks to inflation, particularly stemming from sticky wage growth, we think that the hawks will get their way, with the communications to hint at only a gradual pace of cuts ahead.
The vote on rates appears highly unlikely to be unanimous, and we expect the two members that opted for a jumbo rate reduction last time out, Dhingra and Mann, to favour a 25bp cut on Thursday.
