2023-06-04 22:19:32
Three-quarters of Dutch entrepreneurs say they cannot or only partially pass on higher costs to customers. This is mainly because they are afraid of losing customers to the competition. Prices are also often laid down in agreements with customers, Statistics Netherlands reports.
Daily groceries have become more expensive at a rapid pace. This would also be because companies are taking advantage of the high inflation to raise prices a little more. This way they can make more profit.
The European Central Bank is investigating whether these types of additional price increases drive inflation. But the survey results of the CBS do not give rise to a picture that endorses this so-called “grabbing inflation”.
One in five companies expect to sell much less if customers have to pay for all the cost increases. Almost 28 percent of companies fear a worse competitive position and therefore do not pass on all extra costs for energy, wages or raw materials, for example.
In addition, almost a quarter of the companies indicated that agreements on price increases are already laid down in contracts. One in four companies stated that they had not incurred any additional costs, or that they might pass them on in full.
More than 5 percent of all companies consider their own amount of debt to be a problem. Most concerns regarding this live in the hospitality industry. There, 13 percent of entrepreneurs indicate that they see their own debt burden as problematic.
Statistics Netherlands collected the data for the survey in early April, together with the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Institute for the Construction Industry and employers’ organizations mkb-Nederland and VNO-NCW.
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