Andy Haldane: Gap between poor and rich to be ‘stretched’ in wake of pandemic
The Covid-19 crisis will likely “stretch” the income gap between the rich and poor, according to Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane.
Speaking in a Channel 4 interview, Haldane, who is a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee and chair of the government’s Industrial Strategy Council, said the pandemic would likely lead to greater inequality within society.
He said the incomes between the rich and poor would be “stretched” as well as the income gap between older and younger generations, describing the situation as “the opposite of levelling up”.
The economist was also concerned about the affect the pandemic is having on jobs. There are currently 1.6 million people out of work in the UK, and 174,000 fewer 16- to 24-year-olds were employed in July to September compared to the previous three months.
“Nothing weighs on me more than the impact this is having on people’s jobs,” he continued. “It is priority one to limit damage to jobs.”
Despite his concerns Haldane said the possibility of soon having a vaccine “could be transformational”.
Pfizer’s experimental vaccine was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in early trials. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are the first firms to show successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine.
“We’ve been for so many months through this gloom loop, with the media coverage dominated by news of viruses and deaths and destruction of jobs… and all of a sudden a subtle stroke of light appeared at the end of the tunnel,” he added.