'Inflammatory' | Bank of England economist sorry for 'accept being poorer' comments

The Bank of England's Chief Economist has apologised over "inflammatory" comments in which he suggested people should ‘accept being poorer’ amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Huw Pill told a podcast in April that businesses and individuals needed to accept that their earnings had fallen, sparking anger from many families struggling to buy food and pay bills.

Pill said: "Somehow in the UK, someone needs to accept that they're worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices, whether higher wages or passing energy costs through on to customers.

"What we're facing now is that reluctance to accept that, yes, we're all worse off and we all have to take our share; to try and pass that cost onto one of our compatriots and saying: 'We'll be alright, but they will have to take our share too'.