On the competitiveness front, goods from lower-wage exporters like China are seen as posing serious threats to Thailand and Indonesia.

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If they are, such wage gains will not result in higher goods prices.

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The Fed's hawkish credibility, along with cheap goods from China and other low-wage countries, has helped to keep consumer-price inflation relatively tame despite exceptionally loose monetary policy.

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Over the past decade, the strongest regional economies (as measured by GDP, job and wage growth) have overwhelmingly been those that produces material goods.

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According to the survey, 42 percent of high net worth consumers expect to increase their spending on luxury goods as compared to 14 percent of high-wage earning affluents.

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Ms Bennett argued that more manufacturing and food production had to take place in the UK to cut the transport of goods around the world, while the railways had to be renationalised and the minimum wage had to be a "living wage".

BBC: Natalie Bennett

The lower classes spend money on goods and services provided by people working in jobs that pay a middle-class or lower-class wage.

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