'The overall picture is likely to be one of prices surging and pay packets stagnating.'
In recent months, wholesale gas prices have risen to unprecedented levels. Last week, they hit a new record of 450p per therm, which experts think could take average annual gas bills to about £2,000 next year.
Labour has suggested the government immediately remove VAT from household energy bills over winter to help households. Inflation is set to peak at 6% in the spring, according to the Bank of England, and the Resolution Foundation warned that real wage growth, which was flat in October, "almost certainly started falling last month and is unlikely to start growing again until the final quarter of 2022".
He told the BBC that the UK employment market had shown signs of resilience during the pandemic following the end of the government's furlough scheme on 30 September, with the unemployment rate close to pre-Covid levels at 4.2%.
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