Inflation’s Return? Poll Finds More Businesses Hiking Prices

Inflation, the enemy of businesses and economies everywhere, is showing worrying signs of reappearing.

More than one-quarter of 574 small business owners surveyed nationwide last month said they had raised prices in the previous three months, up five percentage points from February, according to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business in Washington.

“Seasonally adjusted, this is the worst reading on inflation in a decade,” said William C. Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist. “Wage and input costs are going up.”

The results of the NFIB study are consistent with a recent Chapman University study. In Orange County, an index that measures prices manufacturers paid for their raw material rose sharply in the first quarter of 2000 to its highest level in five years.

That trend is worrisome, said Raymond Sfeir, the Chapman economist who directs the survey. “When commodity prices increase, that could lead to higher wholesale and, eventually, consumer prices,” he recently said.