Accelerating wages growth will fuel domestic inflation and keep pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates if not matched with a sharp turnaround in productivity, economists have warned.

Wages grew at 1.3 per cent in the three months to September 30 as aged care employees and low-paid workers received large one-off pay rises, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. The increase was the largest quarterly rise since records began in 1997 and pushed annual wages growth to a 14-year high of 4 per cent.