Top story
Businesses in the UK are preparing to hike prices in 2025 to deal with the “pressure cooker of rising costs and taxes”, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce.
The representative body said business confidence had slipped to its lowest level since the aftermath of the mini-Budget in autumn 2022. Confidence levels were lowest in the retail and hospitality sectors.
A majority (55%) of the more than 4,800 businesses asked are expecting to raise prices in the next three months, with labour costs the biggest driver.
And 63% of businesses said tax, including national insurance, was now a concern, following the Chancellor’s Budget last year.
“The worrying reverberations of the Budget are clear to see in our survey data,” said BCC director general Shevaun Haviland. “Businesses confidence has slumped in a pressure cooker of rising costs and taxes.
“Firms of all shapes and sizes are telling us the national insurance hike is particularly damaging. Businesses are already cutting back on investment and say they will have to put up prices in the coming months.”
BCC head of research David Bharier added: “Faced with rising costs, our survey paints a difficult picture and shows businesses are having to make some very difficult decisions. Many tell us they expect to push up prices and cut back on investment and we expect this to lead to a low or no-growth economic climate in the coming months.”
This week in the City
Happy New Year and welcome back to the first finance newsletter of 2025.
Lidl was first out of the blocks last week with an update on trading in the crucial festive periodm, with the discounter enjoying record sales in the run up to Christmas.
However, the full flow of Christmas trading updates get underway properly from tomorrow, with Next to get proceedings started.
Kantar will also put out its first market share data of 2025 tomorrow for the 12 weeks to 29 December, giving a good guide to the supermarket winners and losers this Christmas. And the BRC & KMPG are set to release December’s retail sales data.
But all the main action of the week is set to take place on Thursday as Tesco, M&S, B&M and Greggs are all lined up to publish festive figures.
Expectations will be sky high for a rejuvenated M&S following upgrades and smashed expectations throughout 2024, leaving shares at levels not seen since early 2016.
Aside from the retailers, meat & fish processor Hilton Food Group is scheduled to release a full-year trading update on Thursday as well.
Sainsbury’s will follow with a Q3 update of its own on Friday, while Boots owner Walgreens Boots is expected to publish a Q1 update over in the US.
No comments yet