EMPLOYEES in Great Britain experienced another year-on-year fall in regular pay in real terms in the three months to January, although the rate of decline eased, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said yesterday that average weekly earnings in the November to January period were, excluding bonuses, down by 0.2 per cent on a year earlier in inflation-adjusted terms.

The protracted fall in real earnings in recent months, resulting from weak nominal pay rises and a surge in inflation arising from sterling’s post-Brexit vote weakness, has hit household finances.

Stuart McIntyre, of Strathclyde University’s Fraser of Allander Institute, said: “Earnings continue to grow at a slower pace than inflation. This is putting further pressure on household finances, with associated implications for consumer expenditure and in turn GDP (gross domestic product) growth.”

Including bonuses, average weekly earnings in the three months to January were flat when compared with a year earlier.

In nominal terms, regular pay in the three months to January was up by 2.6% on a year earlier. This was a marginal improvement on nominal year-on-year pay growth of 2.5% in the three months to December.

ONS figures on Tuesday showed annual UK consumer prices index inflation dipped from 3% in January to 2.7% in February. But it remains well above the Bank of England’s 2% target and is much higher than its May 2016 rate of 0.3%.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Wage growth still isn’t quite beating inflation, but both pay and prices now appear to be moving in the right direction for UK consumers.”