The August DMP survey was conducted between 5 and 19 August and received 2,561 responses.
Annual private sector output price inflation in the DMP was 7.7% in the three months to August, 0.1 percentage points higher than in the three months to July. The single month figure for August was 7.6%, down from 7.9% in July. Expected year-ahead annual output price inflation was 6.5% in the three months to August, up from 6.3% the previous month (the single month data was 6.4%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in July).
Over the 12 months to August, average unit costs were estimated to have increased by 9.8%. Over the next 12 months, firms expected unit cost growth to be 8.3%, on average. Average wage growth was reported to have been 6.4% over the 12 months to August, and was expected to be 5.5% over the next 12 months.
Perceptions of current CPI inflation averaged 9.6% in the August survey. Looking ahead, DMP members expected CPI inflation to be 8.4% one-year ahead, up from 7.3% in the July survey, and 4.2% in three years’ time.
The percentage of non-labour inputs being disrupted rose to 15% in August, from 14% in July.
Recruitment difficulties remained widespread. In August, 86% of firms reported they were finding it harder to recruit new employees compared with normal. Of those, 63% reported that it was ‘much harder’, 3 percentage points higher than in July.
Annual employment growth in the three months to August was 4.3%, down from 4.5% in the three months to July. Expected year-ahead employment growth was 2.2% in the three months to August, down from 2.4% in the previous month.
The level of overall business uncertainty edged up in August. 63% of respondents reported that uncertainty for their business was ‘high’ or ‘very high’ at the moment, 1 percentage point higher than in July. Uncertainty relating specifically to the conflict in Ukraine and to Brexit also increased in August, with the percentage of respondents ranking each as a top-three source of uncertainty up 2 percentage points and 1 percentage point respectively. Uncertainty relating to Covid decreased sharply in August, with 13% of respondents citing it as a top three source of uncertainty, down from 23% in July.