Huw Pill, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, told British citizens on Tuesday that British households and businesses are going to need to accept that that they are now going to be poorer, and they need to stop pushing prices higher by asking for wage increases.

Pill went on to explain that “a series of inflationary shocks,” which were produced by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and a series of crop shortages, have driven prices to a 40-year high. He said that now British citizens and businesses are making the problems worse, by attempting to avoid the discomforts of inflation by pushing the impacts of it onto other people.

Pill went on to explain that people, “try and pass that cost on to one of our compatriots, saying ‘we’ll be all right, but they will have to take our share too.” He went on to warn that the “pass the parcel game that’s going on here… that game is generating inflation, and that part of inflation can persist.”

Instead he said, people need to simply accept that now they are poorer, because, “if the cost of what you’re buying has gone up compared to what you’re selling, you’re going to be worse off.”

The economist went on to note that as a large importer of natural gas, the UK has seen its energy costs rising more rapidly over the past year than the total value of the nation’s exports, primarily services.

He concluded, “So somehow in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices, whether higher wages or passing the energy costs through on to customers.”

In March, yearly inflation in the UK came in at 10.1%, driven primarily by soaring food costs. Similarly, the nation’s cost of living crisis has shown no sign of letting up.

Although the inflation rate came off of February’s rate of 10.4%, it declined less than analysts had expected, and remains well above the target rate of 2% set by the Bank of England.