Corporations are a lot more willing than usual to raise their prices lately, and it’s putting more of the burden of high inflation on consumers.

That may not come as much of a surprise to anyone who has browsed a grocery aisle, kicked the tires at a car dealership or filled up a gas tank of late, but even the Bank of Canada is starting to take notice of the trend, as the central bank continues its battle to wrestle inflation into submission.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee in Ottawa this week, the bank’s governor, Tiff Macklem, told lawmakers that the bank has noticed a troubling new trend coming out of the corporate sector.

For much of the past few decades, any time businesses have seen a jump in their input costs — the amount they pay for things like raw materials, energy and even workers — “they were pretty cautious about passing on [that cost into] the prices they charged for goods and services,” Macklem said.

Their reasoning was simple: they were afraid of losing customers.

  • LemmysMum@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The sheep can’t hear you over the sound of munching grass. The cattle have no care for what their bells say.

    You show me how to eradicate wilful ignorance and deliberate belligerence and I’ll show you a functional society.

    You would think we didn’t have a massive communication channel attached to our hips ffs

    It might as well be a broken translator.