Cost of living insights - Office for National Statistics

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Around 4 in 10 businesses report rise in the price of goods and services bought

Around 4 in 10 (41%) trading businesses reported a rise in the price of goods or services bought in December 2022 compared with the previous month, according to data collected between 9 and 22 January 2023.

Around one in six trading businesses (17%) reported an increase in the price of goods or services sold over the same period.

Looking ahead to February 2023, around a quarter (26%) of trading businesses expect the price of goods and services sold to rise.

Among these, energy prices remain the top reason for businesses raising their prices, with 35% reporting this as a factor. This was followed by the price of raw materials (27%) and labour costs (23%).

When looking ahead to February 2023, nearly one in five (19%) businesses reported energy prices were their main concern, followed by inflation of goods and services prices (16%) and falling demand of goods and services (13%).

This was according to data collected between 23 January 2023 and 5 February 2023.

Amid ongoing strike action, around one in six (16%) trading private sector businesses were affected as a result of industrial action in December 2022.

A quarter (25%) of those businesses reported they were unable to obtain necessary goods and 21% were unable to obtain necessary services.

In December 2022, almost a third (30%) of trading businesses reported their turnover had fallen compared with the previous month.

This was highest among businesses in the wholesale and retail trade industry, at 46%.

In mid-January 2023, a quarter (25%) of businesses reported their staffing costs had risen over the previous three months, with the accommodation and food service activities industry reporting the highest proportion of businesses whose staffing costs had increased (44%).

In late December 2022, 5% of businesses with 10 or more employees said they expect to make redundancies over the next three months. The most commonly reported reasons for doing so were to reduce staff costs (69%) and certain job roles no longer being required (29%).