Wage growth passes its peak as Bailey set to address the City

WORKERS returning to the jobs markets and boosting the volume of candidates are poised to put a lid on wage growth, analysts are predicting official numbers this week will show.

Pay growth is said to have “passed its peak” after raging for over a year, fuelled by staff demanding wage increases to compensate for inflation .

Regular pay, which strips out bonuses and other one-off payments, is predicted by the City to have grown 7.1 per cent over the three months to May – Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures tomorrow are tipped to unveil – down slightly from the 7.2 per cent jump clocked in the previous quarter.

Separate data from the ONS on Thursday is projected by analysts to show the extra bank holiday to celebrate the

King’s coronation in May would have sent the UK economy into contraction.

“We expect GDP to have fallen by 0.4 per cent [month on month] in May,” consultancy Oxford Economics said.

Raja agreed, explaining: “An unwinding of industrial action to some extent should automatically boost GDP, partially offsetting the hit from the extra bank holiday.”

Britain has narrowly avoided an official recession so far this year, though experts have warned the Bank of England risks igniting one with its interest rate rises.

Governor Andrew Bailey will provide clues on whether he agrees with financial markets’s expectation that interest rates will peak at around 6.5 per cent in his annual speech at Mansion House today.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will also speak at the annual bankers’ dinner.

Peel Hunt have marked JD Sports as a “buy” with a target price of 250p. Its acquisition of Iberian Sports Retail Group should complete in October leaving JD with net cash of £1.4bn. “There was progress last week with franchises starting in the Middle East so JD is not dragging its feet as it grows [internationally]. We continue to believe the global growth story here is materially undervalued, analysts said.

Peel Hunt have rated YouGov a “buy” as the market research and polling company looks set to acquire GfK SE’s European Consumer Panel Business. The deal will be YouGov’s largest ever acquisition. Although “cost synergies are not expected to fully materialise until FY25E,” analysts said. They slap on a target price of 1,295p.