Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has praised companies giving higher pay rises to their lower paid staff after admitting that spiralling inflation is hitting the worst off in society the hardest.
Mr Bailey - on a two-day visit to the North of England that saw him meet businesses in the North East and North West - was speaking just ahead of the release of GDP figures which suggest the UK could be entering the longest recession in a century.
Official statisticians said the economy shrank by 0.2% between July and September, the largest quarterly fall since early 2021 when the UK went back into lockdown to combat the Covid-19 virus. Business groups said firms were seeing a drop in confidence, with one saying that “the outlook for the UK economy is now very bleak indeed”.
