Some of the world’s largest consumer brands have warned of rapidly rising input costs which they are passing on to customers in a bid to protect their profits as surging inflation pushes up households’ expenses.
Companies including PepsiCo, McDonald’s and breakfast cereal maker Kellogg all flagged the impact of higher labour, shipping and commodity costs and the pandemic’s disruption to supply chains and the workforce during the latest corporate earnings season.
“US businesses have managed to do something never before accomplished, which is to lump four years’ worth of price increases into one,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Rosenberg Research.