Pricing Increases As Profitability Remains Flat

Following an 8.1 per cent increase in June ‒ the largest yearly change since January 1983, Canadian businesses expect to raise prices over the next three months, says Statistics Canada’s ‘Canadian Survey on Business Conditions.’ Although this was down from 39 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, the decrease follows three quarters of continued increases in the proportion of businesses anticipating raising prices. It says 54.1 per cent of businesses in retail trade and 51 per cent in wholesale trade expect to raise prices. Half of businesses expect profitability to remain relatively unchanged over the next three months with 35.9 per cent expecting their profitability to decrease and 11.2 per cent expecting their profitability to increase.