UK's Hunt says public-sector pay restraint needed to tame inflation

LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Friday that he did not wish to see pay rises for public-sector workers that might reduce the pace at which the government expects double-digit inflation to fall.

"We know that the thing that is making them (public-sector workers) most angry is the erosion of their pay through inflation," Hunt told an event hosted by the Financial Times.

"We just have to be really careful not to agree to pay demands that have the opposite of the intended effect, and lock in high inflation," he added.

(Reporting by William James, writing by David Milliken)