Finance & economics | Prices and wages

Your pay is still going up too fast

Why the last part of the inflation fight may be the hardest

People walking along a London Underground walkway from Kings Cross to Granary Square.
Photograph: Alamy
|New York

Central bankers are entering the final stretch. Rich-world prices are rising by 5.4% year on year, down from a peak of 10.7% in October 2022. Although this is impressive progress, the last part of their quest—getting inflation from 5.4% to official targets of around 2%—could be the most difficult. That is because labour markets are not co-operating.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Wages of destruction”

From the February 3rd 2024 edition

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