UK labour costs add to sign of growing inflation pressure

FILE PHOTO: Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in the city of London, Britain, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville - Copyright TOBY MELVILLE(Reuters)

By Reuters

Published on 05/04/2019 - 11:04•Updated 20/04/2024 - 06:31

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LONDON (Reuters) - British unit labour costs rose by an annual 3.1 percent in the last three months of 2018, the fastest increase in five years, official data showed on Friday.

The rise added to signs of a pick-up in inflation pressures that the Bank of England has said will need to be offset by higher interest rates.

The Office for National Statistics also said output-per-hour, a measure of productivity, rose by only 0.5 percent in 2018 as a whole, "well below the annual average of 2 percent experienced before the 2008 economic downturn."

(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)

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