Improving consumer confidence, rising inflation and falling unemployment have heightened the speculation that Bank of England (BOE) could be the first major bank to tighten the stimulus and increase interest rates from a record low of 0.5%. The weakness in pay growth would compel BOE to delay the tightening until the British people can afford higher borrowing costs. According to the latest indicators from the Office for National Statistics, average weekly wage growth including bonus has declined from 1.9% (January-March) to 0.3% (March-May), the lowest since 2009.