The Weekly Brief

Ordinarily, the Bank of England (BoE) would prefer to look through the supply shock in energy and commodity markets that has helped push inflation in the UK to 9.0% year on year in April. But the strength of the labour market data is at odds with this idea. For the first time since records began, there are fewer people unemployed than there are job vacancies and the unemployment rate now sits at a nearly 50-year low.