Just as Covid-19 was the biggest story of the past couple of years, inflation or 'the big squeeze' is dominating the news agenda of 2022.
Food prices in the UK have increased at their fastest rate in 30 years at 5.4% and energy costs are set to rise again in the spring. The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast growth for 2022 by 0.5 percentage points to 4.4% last month, citing the bite from the Omicron variant, higher than forecasted inflation, along with supply chain disruptions in the US and lower spending in China.
The World Bank has warned of a "pronounced slowdown" in growth in the next two years, with the bank predicting a downfall from 5.5% in 2021 to 4.1% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023. Emerging, or developing countries are expected to be hit hardest.
"The world economy is simultaneously facing Covid-19, inflation, and policy uncertainty, with government spending and monetary policies in uncharted territory,” said David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, in the report.
Inflation and tightened budgets may seem relatively recent news to consumers, but cosmetic businesses have been grappling with these price rises for the past year. At the beginning stages of the cosmetics supply chain, ingredient suppliers have been forced to pass on price rises to
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