Clothing retailer Primark said on Monday that around 27,000 staff in Britain would get an average pay increase of 9.1% from April 1, making it the latest retailer to reflect an upcoming rise in the government-mandated minimum wage.

Primark is part of Associated British Foods.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Wage rises are being closely observed by the Bank Of England which monitors pay settlements as it assesses whether the inflationary pressure in the British economy has eased enough for it to cut interest rates from its highest level in 16 years.

BY THE NUMBERS

Primark said it will raise its average rates of hourly pay for shop workers across England, Scotland and Wales to 12.00 pounds and 12.56 pounds for workers in London.

Britain's main government-mandated minimum wage rate is due to increase to 11.44 pounds ($14.69) an hour on April 1 from 10.42 pounds for those aged 21 or over.

CONTEXT

Several food and clothing retailers have raised their minimum rates of staff pay, including John Lewis by 10%, supermarket Asda with an 8.4% pay rise and Marks & Spencer with a 10.1% pay raise for around 40,000 store staff.

Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, and Costa Coffee have also announced pay rises for 2024.

($1 = 0.7786 pounds)

(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; editing by William James, Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski)