Key points
- This paper summarises the key themes from our recent business visits.
- Firms are generally positive about demand. Any pessimism is driven mainly by uncertainty about the future of the broader business landscape.
- Labour is in short supply and labour costs are rising because of minimum wage increases and related pass-through to other wage brackets.
- Firms want to invest but are holding back due to high levels of policy uncertainty and capacity constraints.
- Increasing costs cannot be passed on to prices because of high competition, related to increased price transparency and low imported inflation, and fixed-price contracts.
Click here to read more
