UK pay deals hold at 4% as inflation steams ahead

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken of the need for a high-wage economy but earlier this month warned that the risk of a damaging wage-price spiral - where wages chase rising prices in a self-reinforcing cycle - needed to be averted. A letter on Friday sent to Johnson by 67 economists said there was no wage-price spiral underway in Britain and that keeping wages down would risk recession.

LONDON: Annual pay rises agreed at British workplaces steadied last month at a historically high rate but fell further behind soaring inflation, according to another survey on Tuesday that suggested fears of a wage-price spiral may be overdone.

XpertHR, a pay and personnel data publisher, said employer pay deals for the three months to May stood at a median 4%, unchanged from the previous month.