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(Bloomberg) -- UK wage growth picked up to a six-month high, keeping investors on tenterhooks over whether the Bank of England will cut interest rates further next month.

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Pay excluding bonuses rose 5.6% in the three months through November from a year earlier, up from 5.2% the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. It was above economists’ expectations for wage growth of 5.5%.

Private-sector pay growth, the gauge most closely watched by the BOE, accelerated to 6% from 5.5%.

The figures come just over two weeks before the BOE decides whether to press ahead with more rate cuts, with the state of the labor market crucial to the outcome. Concerns about lingering inflation pressures have convinced the BOE to ease policy just twice since August, leaving the BOE lagging behind its Eurozone and US peers.

Governor Andrew Bailey has signaled a “cautious” approach to further easing. However, officials have played down the recent uptick in wage growth, with surveys showing the labor market cooling in response to a faltering economy.

The latest figures were pushed higher by an unusual monthly fall in pay in October last year, as well as relatively strong pay growth in September and October.

Ahead of the data, traders were pricing in an 85% chance of a rate cut in February after figures last week showed a surprise slowdown in inflation and disappointing economic growth.

Unemployment edged up to 4.4% from 4.3%, as economists forecast, though officials have cautioned over the accuracy of the UK’s jobless data. In signs of weakening activity, vacancies fell in December and the number of employees on payroll dropped more than expected.

--With assistance from Harumi Ichikura, Mark Evans and Joel Rinneby.

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