British unemployment falls to lowest in a decade

Britain's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, official data showed on Wednesday, but the government warned of headwinds from weak growth at home and abroad.

Unemployment dropped to 5.1 percent in the three months to November -- the lowest rate since October 2005 -- the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

It had stood at 5.2 percent in October 2015.

The jobless total was 1.68 million people -- 239,000 fewer than in the same period a year earlier.

While welcoming the data, finance minister George Osborne warned in a statement of "a dangerous cocktail of new risks this year in the global economy".

The ONS added that average weekly wages, including bonuses, rose by 2.0 percent from a year earlier, outpacing inflation which languished close to zero.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney on Tuesday said it was still too early to lift Britain's record-low interest rate, citing weak global growth and low inflation.

The BoE has left borrowing costs at an all-time low of 0.50 percent since March 2009 as it seeks to stimulate economic growth in Britain.