‘There is nothing that hasn’t gone up’: how rising costs are hitting UK businesses

As inflation hits 10-year high, Covid-hit sectors are sounding the alarm on spiralling prices

Inflation has barely stirred for most of the 14 years since the start of the global financial crisis. Yet the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted almost every aspect of the global economy, and businesses are having to face up to what to many feels like an unusual phenomenon: rapidly rising prices.

It has taken those who watch the economy by surprise. A year ago independent economists polled by the UK Treasury expected consumer price index inflation to reach only 1.9% by the fourth quarter of this year. On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics reported CPI had risen 4.2% over the year to October - almost double the Bank of England's 2% target and the highest in a decade.