BoE's Bailey says Pill's comments on inflation and wages were wrong

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the central bank was sensitive to the impact of high inflation on people with lower incomes and he criticised the way the BoE's chief economist Huw Pill expressed himself on the subject last month.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the central bank was sensitive to the impact of high inflation on people with lower incomes and he criticised the way the BoE's chief economist Huw Pill expressed himself on the subject last month. "We are very sensitive to the position of people, all people, but particularly people on lower incomes. I don't think Huw's choice of words was the right one in that sense. I have to be honest and I think he would agree with me," Bailey told a press conference on Thursday.

Pill told a podcast in April that businesses and individuals needed to accept that their earnings had fallen, sparking anger from many families struggling to buy food and pay bills. Pill said: "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 energy costs through on to customers."