Businesses blame Brexit for 250% increase in price rises
Purchasing company Beacon has reported a 267% growth in price rise notifications between September 2016 and January 2017 compared to the same period last year.
During this period, Beacon saw an increase from six notifications to 22. It says the rise is the first from some suppliers for up to four years, with the vast majority of pricing notifications quoting either Brexit or market uncertainty.
Beacon also claimed that the average price rise for products and services has doubled.
Paul Connelly, managing director at Beacon, said: "These price increase notifications indicate to us a significant shift in mindset from British and European businesses. After the Brexit vote in June last year, we had about six months of businesses waiting and seeing what Brexit meant to them. That period of pausing appears to be over.
"The price rises are coming, which will impact smaller, independent businesses and is likely to feed through to consumers if those businesses are not able to absorb the increased costs. A period of prolonged prudence is likely as the focus sharpens on continuing to help people and businesses control costs and remain profitable. We have seen an increase in the number of businesses wanting to be part of our collective purchasing organisation and predict that is only likely to increase as more price pressures filter through."
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