The number of businesses planning to raise prices in the coming months has jumped sharply as increases in the UK Budget in tax and wage costs caused confidence to “slump”, the British Chambers of Commerce has warned.
About 55 per cent of companies said they were planning to increase prices in the coming three months, up from 39 per cent in the third quarter, the lobby group’s survey of almost 5,000 businesses found.
The expected price rises will fuel concerns that Budget measures will underpin the UK’s resilient inflation.
Concerns over tax levels also hit their highest level since 2017, the BCC found, following chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to lift employers’ national insurance contributions by £25bn in the October Budget.
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