Forget anyone who may try to claim that there's an easy answer to inflation or consumer prices. Trying to control rising costs without impacting unemployment or sprinting headlong into recession is a complex series of steps that everyone is trying to learn across the globe at the same time.
In his latest column (exclusively online or via the digital edition of our show daily from K 2022) PN Economics Editor Bill Wood notes, however, that it's important to try to keep up.
"The result [is] a situation in which deft inventory management is not only increasingly crucial to the health of your company but also more uncertain and riskier than ever before," he writes.
So far, consumer demand hasn't fallen sharply despite rising prices. As the New York Times writes, Procter & Gamble Co. has raised prices by 9 percent in the past quarter, but sales fell only 3 percent, mostly driven by a loss of sales in Russia.
"Recession or not, slower growth in spending is inevitable," Bill says. "What does all of this mean for the plastics industry? It means the outlook for the coming year depends significantly on the end market sector in question."