Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
While the cost of motor fuel are down, chip prices continue to climb amid a scramble for semiconductors.
The boss of retailer Currys has warned that that global shortages of memory chips will mean some price rises for consumer electrical products.
“AI and data centres are eating up the world’s supply of silicon, leaving less for the likes of mobile phones and laptops which does create availability challenges and will produce some cost price inflation.
“Inevitably there are going to be some price rises but we’re in a pretty good position to dampen that as much as possible.”
Geopolitical risks were the biggest growing challenge to performance with 65% of companies citing this as an issue, likely reflecting the fallout from the Iran conflict and increasing domestic uncertainty as a change of prime minister looms large.
Labour costs (58%) were the second biggest challenge amid the notable minimum wage increase during the survey period, followed by energy costs with the percentage of firms highlighting this issue rising sharply from 35% in Q1 to 55% in Q2. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and rising fuel prices meant the share of businesses citing transport worries nearly doubled from 11% to 20%, the highest for over two years.
Continue reading…Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsWhile the cost of motor fuel are down, chip prices continue to climb amid a scramble for semiconductors.The boss of retailer Currys has warned that that global shortages of memory chips will mean some price rises for consumer electrical products.“AI and data centres are eating up the world’s supply of silicon, leaving less for the likes of mobile phones and laptops which does create availability challenges and will produce some cost price inflation.“Inevitably there are going to be some price rises but we’re in a pretty good position to dampen that as much as possible.”Geopolitical risks were the biggest growing challenge to performance with 65% of companies citing this as an issue, likely reflecting the fallout from the Iran conflict and increasing domestic uncertainty as a change of prime minister looms large.Labour costs (58%) were the second biggest challenge amid the notable minimum wage increase during the survey period, followed by energy costs with the percentage of firms highlighting this issue rising sharply from 35% in Q1 to 55% in Q2. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and rising fuel prices meant the share of businesses citing transport worries nearly doubled from 11% to 20%, the highest for over two years. Continue reading…
