Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan has told the UK government to limit pay rises for public sector workers and refrain from hitting banks with tax increases, as chancellor Rachel Reeves weighs options to plug a fiscal hole.
“We need to curb expenditure at the government level,” he told the Financial Times, adding that ministers needed to bear down on rising “public sector” wages. “We need to find a way to curb wage inflation,” he said, stressing that it was an issue across the UK economy.
Venkatakrishnan also warned against raising taxes on British banks: “UK banks are taxed more than banks anywhere else, how much more are you going to squeeze this?”