Business Costs Continue Unrelenting Rise in 2010

Business Costs Continue Unrelenting Rise in 2010

In its annual release of “Business Costs 2010”, The Main Report Business
Letter, says the cost of doing business this year is likely to
keep heading upwards, although lower inflation across the wider
economy, and lower wage demands will help.

The Main Report Business Letter says as New Zealand emerges
slowly from recession the exchange rate will stay high, which
will help businesses with the cost of imported items, such as
computers, stationary, cars and fuel.

But there are a lot of operators in the B2B sector who are
looking to claw back reduced profits from a tough 2009, so as
times get better, costs will start to rise.

Business Costs 2010 analyses 22 key cost factors for business and
predicts whether they’ll rise, go down, or stay flat. 13
categories are expected to rise in cost, three look set to fall –
wages, computing and travel – while six are expected to stay
relatively flat, including the exchange rate, shipping, motoring,
telecoms, human resources and compliance costs (aside from GST
which will create some costs as businesses gear up for the
anticipated change to 15%).

In 2009 The Main Report Business Letter predicted increases in 12
of the 22 categories, falls in seven and three to stay the same.

The Main Report Business Letter concludes with strength returning
to the economy, albeit rather slowly at this stage, businesses
will be anticipating regaining some of the ground they lost in
2009. This will mean overall increases in the cost of doing
business in excess of the rate of inflation for 2010.

The full Business Costs 2010: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1002/Business_costs.pdf

© Scoop Media