A Bank of England boss earning £190,000 per year has said that British families must “accept that they’re worse off” as inflation rates rise.
Huw Pill, the Bank’s senior economist, stated that Britons should cease demanding pay raises that drive up costs.
According to Pill, the economy is playing “pass the parcel” as families and businesses strive to pass on increased prices.
In March, inflation reached 10.1 percent, five times more than the Bank of England’s 2% target.
Speaking on a podcast produced by Columbia Law School in New York, the economist explained that it’s natural for a household to appeal for higher wages in response to surging energy bills, or for a restaurant to increase its prices.
However, he said the UK is a big importer of natural gas, and its price has gone up a lot compared with the exports, mainly services, which the UK sells to the rest of the world.
He added that there was a “reluctance to accept” that Britain had become collectively poorer but claimed it was an inevitable consequence of the jump in energy prices following the invasion of Ukraine.
“If the cost of what you’re buying has gone up compared to what you’re selling, you’re going to be worse off,” he said.
“So somehow in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices, whether higher wages or passing the energy costs through on to customers.
“And what we’re facing now is that reluctance to accept that, yes, we’re all worse off, and we all have to take our share.