Households should ‘accept’ being poorer, Bank of England’s top economist says

Huw Pill said workers asking for higher pay and shopkeepers putting up prices is ‘self-defeating’ as it fuels inflation

Huw Pill urged people to ‘stop trying’ to keep up with inflation and ‘accept they are worse off’ (Parliament TV)

The Bank of England’s chief economist is facing backlash for suggesting households “need to accept” they will be poorer.

Huw Pill said workers asking for higher pay and shopkeepers putting up prices were “self-defeating” as both fuel inflation.

The former Goldman Sachs banker said Mr Pill said people in the UK were playing a “pass the parcel game” by asking for higher pay in a bid to maintain their spending power and had so far been “reluctant” to accept that their incomes had been hit.