LONDON (Reuters) – British companies expect to raise prices faster in the coming 12 months, and their expectations for staffing numbers eased due to a rise in employment costs in April, a Bank of England survey showed on Thursday.
The BoE’s monthly Decision Maker Panel showed businesses expected employment to grow by just 0.1 percentage points in the coming year.
That is 0.1 percentage points lower than expectations in the three months to January and 1 percentage point below expectations for the year ahead in the three months to October, before finance minister Rachel Reeves announced a rise in employers’ social security contributions.
Firms expected wage growth of 3.9% over the coming year in the three months to February, unchanged from their expectations in the three months before but slower than the 5.2% annual pay rise realised in the year to February.
Expectations for consumer price inflation in the year ahead inched up, rising by 0.1 percentage points to 3.1% in the three months to February, and firms were planning to increase their own prices by 4.0%, also 0.1 percentage points faster.
(Reporting by Suban Abdulla; editing by David Milliken)
