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In Britain, wages are rising at the fastest pace for more than 20 years, but are still unable to catch up with rising prices, official figures show.

Pay, excluding bonuses, rose at an annual rate of 6.7% between October and December, the Office for National Statistics said.

It is said to be the strongest growth seen outside of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, when inflation is taken into account, pay actually fell by 2.5%.

The gap between pay in the private and public sectors continues to exist.

Private wages between October and December increased by 7.3%, while for the public sector it was 4.2%.

However, they are failing to keep up with the rising cost of living at 10.5% inflation.

Rising energy and food prices are putting the country's households under severe pressure and the Bank of England is predicting that the UK will enter recession this year.

Britain has limited the right to protest to certain groups by law

Statistics also report that nearly 850,000 working days were lost as a result of strikes in December alone.

For last year, the lost working days were more than 2.4 million - the highest indicator since 1989.

Great Britain

wage growth