Cost of living crisis ‘a bigger threat to firms than pandemic’

A fifth of firms anticipate that the price of living crisis will probably be worse for his or her enterprise than the pandemic, a brand new survey has discovered.

The greatest threats going through companies over the subsequent six months are rising power prices and inflation and disruptions to the availability chain, which have been worsened by lockdowns in China, in accordance to a survey of 500 leaders of medium-sized companies by BDO, the accounting and enterprise advisory agency.

The Bank of England has warned that inflation may exceed 10 per cent in October, effectively above its goal of 2 per cent. Sixty per cent of companies surveyed have deliberate for a fee of 6 per cent or much less within the present monetary yr. More than 1 / 4 have elevated costs to rebuild margins and a fifth have paused their funding plans.

Ed Dwan, accomplice at BDO, warned that the survey was “deeply troubling”. He mentioned: “For many, the rise in national insurance contributions has been a tipping point — resulting in an increase in salaries that could well exacerbate inflation and the pressures facing businesses right now”.

The quantity of companies that went bankrupt in April was virtually double the extent recorded a yr in the past, when the furlough scheme was nonetheless in place, and about 40 per cent greater than pre-pandemic ranges, the most recent authorities figures present. The shopper costs index, which is the headline measure of inflation, hit a 40-year excessive of 9 per cent in April led by a pointy rise within the value of power, gas and meals.

Rishi Sunak is due to be questioned by the Treasury choose committee this afternoon on whether or not his £21 billion bundle of insurance policies to assist households with the price of living crisis will gas additional inflation. Under the plans, each family will obtain £400 to assist with power payments and people on advantages will obtain an extra cost of £650. About £5 billion of the spending will probably be funded by a windfall tax on the earnings of oil and fuel firms, who’ve benefited from the rise in commodity costs.

The Bank of England may have finished extra to comprise the surge in costs as coronavirus lockdowns eased, in accordance to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest group and a former deputy governor of the central financial institution.

Davies, 71, mentioned that the Bank’s financial coverage committee may have raised charges earlier and slowed down on the £895 billion quantitative easing programme. He instructed media that, whereas he accepted most of the inflationary pressures have been exterior the Bank’s management, “there is an element of what’s going on which does relate to very rapid increases in the money supply, which were driven by very low interest rates and by massive [quantitative easing]”.