UK wages excluding bonuses grew at the fastest pace year-on-year since records began at 7.8 per cent in the three months to June, fresh Office for National Statistics data shows.
The FTSE 100 will open at 8am. Among the companies with reports and trading updates today are Just Group, Marks & Spencer, 888 and Legal & General Group. Read the Tuesday 15 August Business Live blog below.
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IoD: ‘Such a backdrop of continuing wage cost pressures and labour shortages is not a positive one for many businesses’
Dr. Roger Barker, director of policy at the Institute of Directors:
‘The latest data shows a gradual easing of labour market pressures, as the number of vacancies in the economy declined by a further 60,000 in the three months up to July.
‘However, there are still more than a million unfilled positions, which is of great practical concern to businesses leaders.
‘Even more worryingly for policy makers, wage inflation shows no sign of abating.
‘The concern for business is that this may feed into the persistence of stubbornly high rates of inflation and high interest rates. Such a backdrop of continuing wage cost pressures and labour shortages is not a positive one for many businesses.’
Bank of England probes worst UK payment systems meltdown in nearly nine years
Bank of England officials were last night investigating the worst disruption to Britain’s banking payment systems in nearly nine years.
Home buyers and sellers may have seen deals held up as a result of the outage, which lasted for about five-and-a-half hours yesterday.
The Bank, which is run by governor Andrew Bailey said a ‘technical issue’ hit its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) service and CHAPS high-value payments system, which handle hundreds of billions of pounds of transactions each day.
M&S lifts full-year expectations
Marks and Spencer has told investors it now expects profit growth this year, with its soon-to-be-published interim results likely to significantly improve against previous expectations.
M&S said: ‘There remain considerable uncertainties about the economic outlook, and there is a risk that the consumer market will tighten as the year progresses.
‘Nevertheless, we now expect the outcome for the year to show profit growth on 2022-23, and the interim results to show a significant improvement against previous expectations.’
Just Group profits soar 154%
Specialist insurer Just Group has posted a 154 per cent jump in first-half profit, beating market estimates, thanks to bumper sales of its retirement income products and higher new business income.
Underlying operating profit hit £173million in the six months to 30 June, up from £68million last year and beating forecasts of £162million.
Wage growth hits record high
UK wages excluding bonuses grew at the fastest pace year-on-year since records began at 7.8 per cent in the three months to June, fresh Office for National Statistics data shows.
Wage growth has been an area of concern for the Bank of England as it attempts to wrangle inflation under control.
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