We will beat the strikers, even if it means momentary pain, Hunt vows

Mr Hunt said junior doctors' demands for a 35 percent pay increase are «very hard to justify given the current economic pressures.» Photo: Samuel Corum. /Bloomberg

Jeremy Hunt says the government is ready to drop wage demands from striking teachers and doctors, even if it causes more short-term economic problems.

The chancellor said giving in to pay demands would be a «short-term solution» that risks fueling already «dangerously high» inflation.

The comments came after official data Thursday showed that a wave of strikes in February had led to the economy to a complete halt.

Mr Hunt said the junior doctors' demands for a 35% pay increase are «very difficult to justify given the current economic pressures,» adding that talks between the government and unions are unlikely to bear fruit. «fruitful» until public sector workers moderate their demands.

1,503 paid doctors

Official data released on Friday showed the economy stagnated in February after half a million teachers, lecturers and train drivers went on strike over wage increases.

However, Mr. Hunt insists that any short-term recession will do less damage to the economy. savings than the impact of concessions to requirements.

Speaking on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, the Chancellor said: “Of course, the strike has a short-term impact… but if we tried to settle these strikes with wages that fuel inflation.

“The worst thing that can happen to growth is inflation, because that means we have higher interest rates, a reduction in the purchasing power of the economy, which makes it very, very difficult. grow at the healthy pace we all want to see.”

Mr Hunt added that “entrenched inflation” will affect the quality of public services for years to come.

“If we are going to sustainably finance public services in the long term, we need to ensure the growth of the economy, and this means fighting inflation, which exceeds 10%. It's unsustainably high, dangerously high.»

The warning came as economists said Britain was entering a period of stagnation after the economy stabilized in February. The lack of growth fell short of the city's expectations of a 0.1% increase in monthly GDP.

Half a million workers, led by teachers, joined by university lecturers and train drivers, marched out in early February to protest the agreements on wages. Later in the month, nurses and ambulance workers staged more strikes.

Industrial strikes sent output in the UK's dominant services sector down 0.1 percent after rising 0.7 percent in January.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said strikes in the public sector growth in construction and retail trade was undermined in February.

He said: “These [growths] were offset by the impact of the strike of civil servants and teachers. actions that have affected the public sector.”

Education output fell 1.7% in February, reversing much of the 2.5% growth recorded in January.

< p>David Bharrier, head of research at the British Chamber of Commerce, said: «It is now clear that we are stuck in a long period of almost no growth.» However, Samuel Tombs, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics in the UK, said strikes in the public sector masked a recovery in the private sector, where output rose 0.2% m/m.